Google expects new China licence, says Schmidt!

Google boss Eric Schmidt has said he expects the internet giant to be granted a new licence to operate in China.

There had been speculation China would revoke the licence after Google began redirecting Chinese users to its unfiltered search site in Hong Kong.

This was in protest at China’s stringent censorship laws.

But last month, Google said it would no longer automatically redirect users in a conciliatory move towards Beijing.

Instead, Chinese users would be sent to a “landing page”, which would send them to the Hong Kong site.

The Chinese government has been in a long-running dispute with Google

Key licence

“We would expect we would get the necessary licence,” Mr Schmidt told a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“We now expect to get a renewal”.

Google has had a long history of run-ins with the Chinese authorities, but without a licence granted by Beijing, it cannot operate in China.

“Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government,” Mr Schmidt said.

Losing business in the country could harm Google’s future growth prospects.

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