Google said today it will stop automatically rerouting users of its China search site to its Hong Kong site after Beijing said the company would lose its mainland internet licence if the tactic continued.

Google is still censoring content for some of its business partners in China, two days after moving its search engine offshore, a spokeswoman for the internet search giant said.

GOOGLE’s partial withdrawal from China brought swift condemnation from the government while leaving Chinese web surfers to wonder whether they would be able to access a new offshore search engine site or be blocked by censors.

China’s government reacted testily today to Google's decision to stop censoring its China-based search engine, calling the move “totally wrong” and accusing the company of violating promises.