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Editor: Matt Paines

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Search engine's row with China set to continue

A senior Chinese official has warned Google that it will 'pay the consequences' if it does not abide by the country's censorship laws.

In January, the internet search engine announced that it would no longer comply with China's laws and warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal.

Speaking at China's annual legislation session, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong said the laws were needed to preserve the nation's interests and the interests of its people.

What needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked, he added.

Google began operations in China in 2006 to widespread criticism from many who argued the search engine was complicit in the censorship imposed by Chinese government.

The search engine insisted it was nevertheless serving the public interest even though it was providing censored results.

Relations between China and Google hit a low earlier this year when Google was hit by a sophisticated cyber attack that targeted the webmail accounts of human rights activists.

Since then, the internet search engine has been in talks with officials about how to provide an unfiltered service but still remain within the law.

According to recent figures Google is the second most popular search engine in China, but it holds just a third of the market compared to rival Baidu, which has a share of around 60%

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