More than two months after threatening to bolt China, Google said it would maintain a presence in China and redirect users to an unfiltered Chinese-language search engine based in Hong Kong.

Sharon Hom, executive director of New York-based Human Rights in China, said that Google was throwing the ball in the court of Beijing which promised to respect freedoms in Hong Kong when it regained the territory in 1997.

"Google is really thinking outside of the box," she told AFP. "They are technically staying in China but stopping censorship."

"It should be a message to other companies that they can come up with other solutions other than the simplistic choice of staying in China and censoring or giving up and leaving," she said.

Hom was hopeful that Chinese citizens could take advantage of the Hong Kong-based website, noting it allowed searches in simplified Chinese characters which are used in the mainland.

Leading Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who spent nearly two decades in prison and now lives in the United States, said he supported Google's decision and was not surprised.

"We knew all too well that the Chinese government would not back down, but we also knew that Google's motto was 'Do no evil.' So there was no point on which to compromise," Wei told AFP.

"But our worry is that Internet companies may now face even more pressure from the Chinese government," he said.

Google had first threatened to pull out of China after reporting cyberattacks on the company and against the email accounts of dissidents.

The Internet giant, which prides itself on open access, had earlier been in the awkward position of defending its operations in China as the only way it could bring limited access to the billion-plus nation.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders, which had been strongly critical of Google in the past, said the Silicon Valley giant had taken a bold step.

"Google has taken a courageous position against censorship," said Lucie Morillon, the head of the Paris-based organization's new media desk.

"Google is betting in the long-term future on a free Internet. It may be too early to tell, but we hope that the future proves them right," she said.

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