Google 'may pull out of China'

Google may shut down its Chinese service due to recent hacking attacks and an ongoing dispute regarding the country's privacy laws.

Minister of industry and information technology Li Yizhong recently spoke at China's legislative session and said he hopes the search engine giant will "abide and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations".

If not, "it means you are unfriendly, irresponsible and you will have to pay the consequences", he was quoted by the BBC as stating.

Google, which has operated its google.cn portal since 2006, said in January this year it would no longer comply with censorship regulations in place in the country.

And according to the Wall Street Journal, a person familiar with the situation said the company will take action in the next few weeks.

Google's market share in China is thought to be relatively low, compared to Baidu and local companies.

However, recent research by the AT Internet Institute showed that the search engine remains the most popular in the UK. Statistics for February this year found its market share to stand at 89.2 per cent.