China today renewed Google's licence to continue operating in the country, the search giant announced today

The decision secures Google's foothold in the country's fast-growing internet market despite tensions over censorship.


The deal had been in doubt because of the dispute between Google and China over hacking of Gmail accounts and censorship of search results.

Google closed its China search engine in March but wanted to keep a website that offers music and other services.

Google's lawyer David Drummond said: 'We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP (internet content provider) licence and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China.


Users had been automatically redirected to Google's uncensored Hong Kong site, but the company stopped that last week after China warned the move could mean losing its licence.

Google's relations with Beijing have been troubled since the US company said it no longer wanted to cooperate with government internet censorship.