A positive sign in many ways and shows that not all Western firms will always bow to Beijing’s demands. Of course, the flip argument is that the departure of Google will leave one… less non-Chinese company in the country, a group that may sometimes challenge strict web censorship:
Google will today set out plans to close down its Chinese search engine after refusing to comply with China’s strict censorship laws.
The company is expected to announce that google.cn will close as soon as April 10 after the Chinese government refused to acquiesce to demands that it stop self-censorship of the site.
It is understood that Google will continue to operate other services in the country and will maintain its research and development operations.