China has always been a minefield for foreign internet companies. The size of the market needs to be balanced against the censorship demanded by the Chinese government as a price of operating. Up until now Google has found this a price worth paying – despite the ramifications for its corporate motto of Don’t Be Evil.

But recent alleged cyber attacks on the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists seem to be have changed its mind. To the point it is now suggesting it might pull out of the country altogether – and at the very least end censorship on www.google.cn.

Whether it will actually go through with the threat is another matter – but making its threats public is going to definitely rile the Chinese government. Let’s see what happens to the Google share price today and how that affects its ultimate decision………