By Mark Lee (Bloomberg) – Google Inc. said it has begun talks with the Chinese government about the company’s plan to stop censoring search results on its Chinese service, after citing cyber-attacks as reasons to review its operations in the country.

Google will hold more talks with Chinese authorities “in the coming days,” it said in an e-mailed statement today.

The operator of the world’s most-popular search engine last week said it plans to operate an unfiltered search-engine service in China — a move that may lead to the company closing down its offices in the country — pending talks with the government. The Mountain View, California-based Internet operator said its computer system faced a series of “highly sophisticated” attacks that originated in China.

The Google.cn Chinese-language site is still operating in compliance with local regulations, Google said in the statement.

The Chinese service started by Google in 2006 limits search results to comply with the Chinese government’s rules to restrict access to information censors deem inappropriate.

–Editors: Mark McCord, Frank Longid.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Lee in Hong Kong at +852-2977-6909 or wlee37@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Annells at +81-3-3201-7634 or jannells@bloomberg.net

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