Two pedestrians walk past the company logo outside the Google China headquarters in Beijing on January 15. Google and Chinese officials will resume talks about whether the US firm can deliver unfiltered Internet search results in the world's most populous country, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Google and Chinese officials will resume talks about whether the US firm can deliver unfiltered Internet search results in the world's most populous country, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
It was unclear whether any progress was being made in the talks, or whether Google would be forced to follow through on its January threat to shut down its Chinese-language search engine google.cn rather than bow to government censors.
Google launched the ultimatum over what it said were cyberattacks aimed at its source code and at the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists around the world.
Recent reports have quoted US analysts as saying they believe a Chinese freelance security consultant with government ties was the author of the code used in the hack attacks on Google and more than 30 other companies.
Unnamed investigators have also been cited as saying the cyberattack trail led back to computers at two schools in China. The Chinese government and the schools have denied involvement in any cyberespionage.
US President Barack Obama said last month that he was "troubled" by the cyberattacks on Google and wanted answers from China.
Meanwhile, Google has continued to filter search results in China and remained tight-lipped regarding discussions with officials in that country.
Google representatives and Chinese officials were to resume talks in the coming days after a break for China's Lunar New Year holiday, according to the Journal.
A spokeswoman for Google China, Marsha Wang, told AFP that she did not have any update on plans for talks when asked about the report.
(c) 2010 AFP
