China gives Google go-ahead

BEIJING – China confirmed yesterday it had renewed Google’s license to operate after a months long stand-off over Internet censorship, saying the company had pledged it wouldn’t provide “lawbreaking content”.The California-based giant said Friday it had received approval to operate in the world’s most populous country, after it agreed to stop automatically rerouting users of Google.cn to its site in Hong Kong, which is not subject to China’s online censorship. The conflict arose in January when Google decided to end its four-year practice of omitting search results that the Chinese government considers subversive or pornographic. Google made the decision after blaming Chinese computer hackers for an attack it said was aimed at stealing the company’s technology and e-mail information from human rights activists.China is not yet a big moneymaker for Google, accounting for an estimated $250 million to $600 million of the company’s projected $28 billion in revenue this year. But the number of Internet users in China is estimated at 384 million, more than the nearly 200 million in the United States. (AP)