Sun Valley, Idaho:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he expects Beijing to renew the license the company needs to continue operating its search engine in China.
The renewal had been in doubt due to the tense relations between Google and Chinese authorities over censorship of Google search results.
Google's relations with Beijing have been rocky since the US search giant stopped censoring its search results in response to cyber attacks it traced to China.
For the last three months, Google had found a clever way to overcome its ethical objections to self-censoring search results on its Web site for mainland China. It automatically redirected Chinese users to an uncensored search site, google.com.hk, maintained on the company's servers in Hong Kong.
But the problem was that the Chinese government objected to it.
Last week, Google stopped redirecting users in China to its uncensored Hong Kong-based site after Chinese officials warned that the move could mean losing its license.
On Monday night, Google acknowledged those objections in a blog post written by David Drummond, its chief legal officer. Mr. Drummond wrote that the Chinese government was ready to reject Google's application for renewal of its Internet Content Provider license, which would effectively mean the company would have to shut down its Web site in the country entirely. The license renewal application was due on Wednesday.
Mr. Drummond wrote that in an effort to continue to serve Google's Chinese users while placating the government, the company is proposing a compromise and in the next few days, it will stop automatically redirecting users to its Hong Kong site. Instead, Chinese users will see a page at google.cn which offers a single link to the Hong Kong site, where they can conduct searches or use other Google services, like translation and music, that require no filtering.
The company said it had resubmitted its content provider license based on this approach and hopes the Chinese government will find it more palatable.
Talking with reporters at the annual media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, hosted by investment bank Allen & Co., Schmidt said, "We now expect a renewal."
China's foreign ministry on Tuesday however declined to comment on Google's decision to end automatic rerouting.
The renewal had been in doubt due to the tense relations between Google and Chinese authorities over censorship of Google search results.
Google's relations with Beijing have been rocky since the US search giant stopped censoring its search results in response to cyber attacks it traced to China.
For the last three months, Google had found a clever way to overcome its ethical objections to self-censoring search results on its Web site for mainland China. It automatically redirected Chinese users to an uncensored search site, google.com.hk, maintained on the company's servers in Hong Kong.
But the problem was that the Chinese government objected to it.
Last week, Google stopped redirecting users in China to its uncensored Hong Kong-based site after Chinese officials warned that the move could mean losing its license.
On Monday night, Google acknowledged those objections in a blog post written by David Drummond, its chief legal officer. Mr. Drummond wrote that the Chinese government was ready to reject Google's application for renewal of its Internet Content Provider license, which would effectively mean the company would have to shut down its Web site in the country entirely. The license renewal application was due on Wednesday.
Mr. Drummond wrote that in an effort to continue to serve Google's Chinese users while placating the government, the company is proposing a compromise and in the next few days, it will stop automatically redirecting users to its Hong Kong site. Instead, Chinese users will see a page at google.cn which offers a single link to the Hong Kong site, where they can conduct searches or use other Google services, like translation and music, that require no filtering.
The company said it had resubmitted its content provider license based on this approach and hopes the Chinese government will find it more palatable.
Talking with reporters at the annual media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, hosted by investment bank Allen & Co., Schmidt said, "We now expect a renewal."
China's foreign ministry on Tuesday however declined to comment on Google's decision to end automatic rerouting.
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