Google fights China

Google has shut its mainland Chinese-language portal and began rerouting searches to its Hong Kong site. China warns Google that its spurning of self-censorship had angered the one-party government, wary of ceding control over China's 384 million Internet users.

Google startled the world and the business community in January when it said it might quit China over censorship and after suffering from a sophisticated hacking attack that it said came from within China. Beijing has denied it was involved in any hacking.

Analysts said it was possible Google's plans for other services in China, such as its Android smartphone software, could be jeopardized by its move. Google's troubles in China are not unique. Many foreign companies such as eBay and Yahoo! have failed to make headway in the market due to localization problems and stiff domestic competition and have pulled out.

Internationally popular websites Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube are blocked in China. A former British colony, Hong Kong enjoys more freedom, including an uncensored Internet, than mainland China.

But Google acknowledged that the Chinese government could at any time block access to the services, which include Google search, news and images.