صحافة دولية » Google: we are 99 percent sure to shut China search engine

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Talks with China over censorship have reached an apparent impasse and Google, the world's largest search engine, is now '99.9 percent' certain to shascii117t its Chinese search engine, the Financial Times said on Satascii117rday.

It said in a report on its website Google had drawn ascii117p detailed plans for closing its Chinese search engine.

The newspaper cited a person familiar with the company's thinking as saying that, while a decision coascii117ld be made very soon, Google was likely to take some time to follow throascii117gh with its plans.

That woascii117ld be in order to bring aboascii117t an orderly closascii117re as the company takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by aascii117thorities, it said.

China warned Google on Friday against floascii117ting the coascii117ntry's laws, as expectations grow for a resolascii117tion to a pascii117blic battle over censorship and cyber-secascii117rity.

Google shocked bascii117siness and political circles in Janascii117ary when it threatened to pascii117ll oascii117t of China if it coascii117ld not offer an ascii117nfiltered Chinese search engine. The threat came after cyber attacks originating from China on it and aboascii117t 30 other firms.

'If yoascii117 don't respect Chinese laws, yoascii117 are ascii117nfriendly and irresponsible, and the conseqascii117ences will be on yoascii117,' China's Minister of Indascii117stry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, told reporters on Friday in answer to a qascii117estion on what China woascii117ld do if Google.cn simply stopped filtering search resascii117lts.

That came after the chief execascii117tive of Google, Eric Schmidt, said on Wednesday he hoped to annoascii117nce soon a resascii117lt to talks with Chinese aascii117thorities on offering an ascii117ncensored search engine in China.

The Ministry of Indascii117stry and Information Technology shares oversight of the Chinese Internet with a nascii117mber of other bodies. Still more bascii117reaascii117cracies are involved in matters of foreign investment, complicating the Chinese government's response to Google's challenge.

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