Google's unexpected announcement comes ahead of Wednesday's deadline when the Internet giants license is up for renewal.
Its clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable, and that if we continue redirecting users, our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed, Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a blog post late Monday night.
Without an ICP license, we cant operate a commercial website like Google.cn so Google would effectively go dark in China.
Users are now required to click anywhere on the Google.cn page in order to get redirected to the Google Hong Kong search site, instead of being automatically rerouted.
Three months ago, Google closed its China-based search service and began rerouting traffic to an unfiltered search site in Hong Kong, drawing harsh comments from Beijing that raised doubts about the company's future in China.
Google, which battles Baidu in China's 380 million user strong Internet market, said in January it might quit the country over censorship and after it was hit by a sophisticated hacking attack that it said came from within China.
China, with its business potential, is a hard market to give up, said Cao Jun Bo, chief analyst at Beijing-based technology research firm iResearch.
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