Google Changes China Access After Beijing Objects

Google's headquarters in Beijing (file photo)

Internet giant Google said today it will stop automatically rerouting users of its China search site to its Hong Kong site after Beijing threatened the company with the loss of its Internet license.

Google shut down its China-based search engine March 22 to avoid cooperating with the communist government's Internet censorship and has rerouted users to its unfiltered site in Hong Kong.

But Google said regulators told the company its Internet license, which expires on June 30, would not be renewed if that continues.

There was no immediate word from Beijing about whether the measure was sufficient for Google to keep its Chinese Internet license.

compiled from agency reports