Google Set to Resume Talks With China

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Google's(GOOG) talks with China regarding operating its search engine without censorship in the country are scheduled to resume soon, a report says.

Google will meet with Chinese officials in coming days, the Wall Street Journal reports, although the schedule and the status of the talks is unclear. Google policy executive, Ross LaJeunesse, is expected to be one of the Google officials handling the talks, said people familiar with the matter, the Journal reports.

But any resolution on whether Google can operate an unfiltered search engine in China is likely to be at least weeks away, said one of the people, the Journal adds.

Google said in January it was no longer willing to censor its search results in China and could potentially shut down its Web site and its offices in the country.

At the time, Google said it would be meeting over the next few weeks with the Chinese government to discuss the basis on which we "operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all."

Google's statements were prompted by evidence that computer hackers had accessed the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google also said it discovered that at least 20 other large companies from a wide range of industries were targeted by hackers.

U.S. analysts believe they have identified the Chinese author of the code used in the alleged state-sponsored hacking attacks on Google and other western companies, the Financial Times reported over the weekend.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel in New York.

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