Google addresses concerns of business customers in mainland China

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As tensions escalate in the war of words between the world’s most powerful Internet company and the world’s most populous nation, the fate of business customers in China who use Gmail and other Google services such as Google Docs and Google Calendar is unclear.

Google responded to mounting concerns late Tuesday with a blog post that offered some technical solutions that would allow business users in mainland China to access a corporate network offshore, similar to what other businesses do.

The company acknowledged that China could block access to those services at any time. It has set up a dashboard to display which services are accessible and which ones are being blocked or partially blocked.

Access to Google’s search engine has been all over the map since the company shut down its site in mainland China and redirected users to an uncensored version in Hong Kong. Chinese users still can’t access information that Chinese authorities deem inappropriate. Some are questioning Google’s stance in China.

-- Jessica Guynn