 Google’s legal structure in China will allow the company to continue operations in the country even if it closes its local search engine, local employees and industry and legal experts say.
The comments come amid frenzied speculation that Google is on the verge of carrying out its January threat to retreat partly or fully from China. The company operates google.cn, its China-registered website, under a joint venture with a domestic partner because Chinese law bars foreign investors from holding controlling stakes in the internet content business. But most of Google’s workforce in the country is employed by a separate company wholly owned by the US parent. “Research and development staff all work with us,” said an employee at Google Information Technology (China), a wholly foreign-owned company according to the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce. Speculation about an imminent announcement from Google intensified on Friday. A state-owned newspaper, quoting an unnamed employee, reported that the company could make an announcement as early as Monday on closing google.cn. Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive, said earlier that the company would seek to keep some of its operations in the country.
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