本周二，谷歌高级副总裁、首席法律顾问大卫•多姆德在该公司官方博客中发布声明称，谷歌公司总部将考虑关闭中文版搜索网站Google.cn，并有可能关闭驻中国办事处。这份声明表示，决定关闭“谷歌中国”站点和在中国的办事处的导火索是，在去年12月中旬针对Google的网络攻击中，一些gmail账户的资料遭到窃取。另外，谷歌公司不愿意继续审查“谷歌中国”搜索到的结果。如果有可能的话，接下来的几周里，Google将和中国政府商议，在法律允许范围内运行一个不必经过过滤的搜索引擎。如果不能达成协议，可能意味着将不得不关闭“谷歌中国”，甚至其中国办事处。有分析人士认为，谷歌此举是在向中国政府施压，希望不会再受网络搜索内容过滤的限制。不过，谷歌内部员工对双方的协商结果并不乐观。

Google - the world's largest search engine - said in a statement yesterday that it is considering exiting China after the company had been hit in December with major cyber attacks that it believes originated in the country.

Google's threat to pull out of China over what it claims to be cyber attacks has left millions of Chinese users concerned - and analysts described the move as the company's strategy to put pressure on the Chinese government.

Google - the world's largest search engine - said in a statement yesterday that it is considering exiting China after the company had been hit in December with major cyber attacks that it believes originated in the country.

It is not clear whether users in China, including many foreigners, would continue to access services such as Gmail and Google Map, should the company shut its service.

David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said in an unusual statement posted online that the company had detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack from China that resulted in the theft of the company's intellectual property.

"These attacks ... led us to conclude that we review the feasibility of our business operations in China."

He said Google will no longer continue censoring results on Google.cn, a Chinese-language website it launched in 2006, and is discussing with the Chinese government the possibility that it operate an unfiltered search engine within the law.

"We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China," he added.

The statement marks a shift in the company's China strategy for the past five years, which is to provide censored results under Chinese law through its domestic search engine in exchange for a presence in the world's largest online population.

That strategy helped Google take about 35 percent of China's search engine market in the fourth quarter of last year, according to domestic research firm Analysys International.

Google started a Chinese-language search service as early as 2000 but the company did not have a significant presence in the country until it established a China team in 2005 and launched Google.cn the following year.

Google's possible retreat from China has prompted the company's 700 China staff to fear for their jobs.

"At a general meeting on Wednesday, we were told that Google might quit China, and all of us feel very sad," said an employee with Google's Beijing office on condition of anonymity.

Drummond's post also said Google would try to negotiate with the Chinese government for more favorable operating conditions in China.

However, the anonymous employee told Xinhua that most Google employees are pessimistic about the outcome of the negotiations.

Dozens of Google users gathered at the company's headquarters in Beijing yesterday afternoon, some bringing flowers to say farewell.

Most of them were university students who came to pay tribute to the IT giant, expressing disappointment at its withdrawal from China.

Google is one of the few Internet giants that have a significant presence in China. Other firms such as Yahoo! and eBay Inc have given up on the China market after years of sluggish performance.

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(China Daily)

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）