Google to shut China site, action within weeks

Shanghai, Mar 15: Google has reportedly drawn up plans to pull out of China as the talks between Internet behemoth and the communist country over the censorship issue reached a deadlock.

Quoting sources close to the development, the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, Mar 13 reported that Google Inc appears increasingly likely to shutter its Chinese-language search engine and is likely to take action within weeks.

Google and Chinese authorities have been in talks about the extent to which the US Internet giant will be able to operate a business in China if it follows through on its pledge two months ago to stop following government censorship requirements on its Chinese site, Google.cn, the report stated.

With these talks reaching an impasse and the expectations of Google to operate Google.cn without filtering results not met, the search engine giant is packing its bags.

Earlier, on Friday, Mar 12 Chinese authorities told local websites that Google was likely to close.

When asked by a reporter about Google's plan to stop filtering results, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong threatened that Google will face dire consequences if it decides to do such an 'irresponsible' act.

This reinforced expectations that the authorities will force Google.cn to close if the company stops censoring it, the report said.

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