Beijing: Google said on Monday it was "business as usual" in China, after reports that the US Internet giant was stopping some local staff from working following its threat to pull out of the Asian country.
The statement came nearly a week after Google's shock announcement that it was considering abandoning its Chinese search engine, and could shut its China offices, over theft of its intellectual property by hackers.
"We gave our employees a holiday the day of the announcement so that we could run tests and scans internally to ensure that the network is safe and secure," Google said.
"Google China employees are now back at work and it's business as usual."
Last week, the Beijing News reported that Google China engineers no longer had access to the company's global database and could no longer work, citing unnamed sources within the company.
The National Business Daily, also quoting unnamed company sources, said some employees had been transferred to the Hong Kong office, while others remained in Beijing but "basically have nothing to do".
Google has said it is no longer willing to bow to the communist country's army of Internet censors by filtering search results available on google.cn, but is still seeking talks with the Chinese government on a solution.
PTI
First Published: Monday, January 18, 2010, 18:16