Google is standing firm on its plan to withdraw its search service from China, saying that it "will not be syndicating censored searches to partners in China" either, according to a Google spokesman who declined to be identified.

That means the company plans to phase out deals to provide filtered search services to other online or mobile firms in China.

"But we will of course fulfill our existing contractual obligations," the spokesman told China Daily in an e-mail interview on Wednesday.

On Monday, David Drummond, Google's senior vice-president of corporate development and chief legal officer, posted on the company's official blogsite that Google has started redirecting its Google.cn traffic to its Hong Kong site, where it now offers both simplified and traditional Chinese uncensored search results.

Drummond also said in the blog that Google "intends to continue research and development work in China and also will maintain a sales presence", though the size of the sales team will be partially dependent on Chinese users' ability to access Google.com.hk.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg quoted Jay Nancarrow, a spokesman for Google, as saying that the Hong Kong site is available in China, though certain search queries may not go through.

According to the spokesman, however, Google may have to cut its number of employees. "In addition, our plans may require some people to relocate," he said.

While Chinese commentaries on Wednesday said Google would regret its move, both countries appeared keen to limit the row as they strive to get one of the world's defining relationships back on track after months of tension.

Philip Crowley, US Department of State spokesman, said on Tuesday that Google has made a business decision to stop operating google.cn in China, while at the same time, the United States values its economic relations with China.

"The State Department was not a party to this decision. This was Google's decision and we respect it," he said at the daily press briefing.

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials also said on Tuesday that Google's move was an isolated act by a commercial company and should not affect China-US ties "unless politicized".

Derek Scissors, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the Google issue will not hurt China's global image seriously or worsen China-US relations. "It will mildly hurt China's global image," he told China Daily.

"There will be some damage because many people may wonder why a company like Google would leave the mainland, when the market has so much potential. This is not a choice a firm would make casually. It is easy to draw the conclusion that there must be a notable problem in the business environment."

As the two countries share many common interests, one company's problem cannot have "any lasting impact" on China-US relations, he added.

"US-China relations will not be affected unless a number of other American companies take similar actions, which is unlikely," Scissors said.

James Lewis, a former State Department official and director of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Google's decision is mainly due to its own commercial concerns. He agreed that no other foreign companies will follow suit.

"Google decided the global market is bigger. It is bad for Google in China but good for Google in rest of the world," he told China Daily.

Google's business in China remains small and Google.cn accounted for just 1 percent or 2 percent of the company's net revenue. "I don't think any other company will do as Google did," Lewis said.

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