Numerous newswires have reported an end to the standoff over Google’s operating license within China, including the country’s official Xinhua News Agency. The state-run news outlet confirmed Sunday that the US tech giant had been granted approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to continue operating its web services for another year.
An anonymous MIIT official confirmed that Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., operator of Google's China website, had been granted the approval as a result of recent moves that ceased automatic redirect of the Google search site to a server in Hong Kong.
As of two weeks ago, visitors to google.cn were required to click through to the Hong Kong-based site, which provides unfiltered search results.
For now, Infosecurity notes, the conflict between the Chinese government and Google appears to have come to an end, with Google still able to operate an uncensored search site within the Chinese market.
Google had been waiting for weeks on a decision based on its latest June 29 application letter for renewal. The MIIT representative told Xinhua that Guxiang would "abide by Chinese law," and "ensure the company provides no law-breaking content”.
The simple change from automatic redirect to click through was apparently enough to sway Chinese officials that Google was acting in good faith to uphold the country’s laws.
The same MIIT official told Xinhua that Guxiang had upheld the requirements established by the government and that license renewal for Google had been granted.