It may not be just an idle threat. The world's top search engine, Google, may well be leaving China for good. Last week, the company says it could no longer abide by the censorship rules it promised to obey when GOOGLE-DOT-CN was launched just four years ago.

Within hours of the announcement, Google appeared to be defying Chinese censors, displaying results for sensitive topics that were previously banned in China. Flowers have been laid outside Google's Beijing offices in a mock funeral for the company.

Google's announcement is basically psychological warfare and is unlikely to be implemented, because Google would be the loser, as well as Chinese internet users.

Google, he says, doesn't think of itself as a media outlet, but as a search engine, and it believes that its search results are rendered purely by an algorithm and so shouldn't be filtered, as in the US. But because of the publicity about China's anti-pornography campaign, Google couldn't handle the situation and had to change its strategy in China.

He continues that regarding the recent copyright lawsuit with the Writer's Society, Google also didn't understand the position of the writers very well. Reaction and impact in China are things that Google finds hard to understand.

Long says Chinese people look at things from different angles and will understand the views of different groups. But for Americans, it is difficult to understand.

Since Google threatened to pull out of China last month, speculation has been rife about the reasons behind the unexpected move. But with all the drama there's one group that's been forgotten.

China's authors are still waiting for a response from the internet giant over what they say is copyright abuse. Google has admitted scanning thousands of works without permission.

By the looks of this bookstore it may seem that China's authors are in for a money making day. But for most, making a profit from their art is as hard as beating the piracy that's rampant in China.

But it's not the pirates that the authors are blaming – it's Google. Last year, the Chinese Writers Association found that more than 80 000 works by writers were scanned into Google's library. It enables people to search and read any book for free – either in part or in its entirety. The aim is to entice the reader to purchase the book. But writers like Jiu Yehui says it doesn't benefit them.

We've heard what Chinese people on the street think, but what about foreign businesses that are thinking of moving to China? Earlier BON reporter Susan Tart spoke with Internet analyst Ashley Liu from In-Stat, a research firm located in Beijing. Susan asked if Google changing the automatic reroute on its China Webpage is a sign of Google giving in to the Chinese government. Here's what Ashley had to say.

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