Google's China row: user comments

The internet giant Google has said it may click end its operations in China following a "sophisticated and targeted" cyber attack originating from the country.

While it did not directly blame the country's government, Google said it was no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine - a move that could see the site being closed, along with its Chinese offices.

Users of the BBC's Chinese website, click bbcchinese.com, have been sending us their views. These have been translated below.

These postings come from both inside and outside of China.

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"Forever support Google! Justice will prevail over evil in the end." - Xixi, Beijing

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"This is not the first time Google threatens to pull out of China.

"I don't think censorship is the main reason; the main reason is that its market share is very small, it is no match to Baidu (the Chinese search engineer), it can't make money, so it wants to pull out.

"Censorship and cyber attack is just a pretext." - Piao, Germany

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"There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Google has been attacked by the Chinese government, but judging from what the government has been doing - to set up the so-called Golden Shield, the force people to install green dam software - all this shows that it is very afraid of the internet.

"If the government is there to serve the people, why is it so afraid of freedom of speech? What's wrong with giving people more freedom?" - Let's Reason

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"I am very concerned about Google's reason for pulling out of china now; if they believe in their principle, why did they agree to Chinese government's censorship in the first place?" - Stephen, UK

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"If one can make money, he won’t withdraw however serious censorship is; but if one cannot make money, then he has to go. This is all driven by money and profit; the rest is make-believe" - Driven By Profit

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"Very interesting how this google story is reported over here.

Google did this because it has problems in China, and in order to have a graceful way out, it is using the old story. It is quite annoying that they blame the Chinese government control for their decision. This is nothing new." - Rush, London

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"If there is equal competition in China, will Google still leave?

"Some readers think Google wants to leave China because it is not doing well, and they sound like they have cheated in the exam and feel proud; Google’s leaving will benefit Baidu the most, and Baidu will expand and consolidate their dominance in China, and the consumers will be the victims." - John, Brussels

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"China practices the most severe form of trade protectionism when it accuses others of doing it. They block the internet, crackdown on this and that, or sue other companies. This is in reality Chinese communist party manipulating internet companies to achieve trade protectionism.

"I am wondering why Google didn’t protest earlier." - Edward Chen, Sydney