Google says China licence renewed by government

"We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP (internet content provider) licence and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China," Google's lawyer David Drummond said in an e-mailed statement.

In January, Google said it might pull out of China following what it called a "sophisticated" cyber attack originating from the country.

"But many of the issues around why Google shut down its Chinese search page in the first place are still there."