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Speaking in Washington Brin said: 'We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference.'

The company, whose motto is 'Don't Be Evil' has been lambasted by US House of Representatives international relations sub-committee

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for the deal which allowed Google to set up its .cn domain provided it removed links to politically sensitive pages that, for example, refer to China's pro-democracy movement and other subjects to which the ruling communists take a dim view.

Intriguingly, Brin is also quoted as saying that, 'Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense.' Some people have suggested that this means that Google is willing to make at least a partial withdrawal from China in order to provide uncensored listings.

On the other hand, China may already be making the decision for the company. The Paris based 'Reporters Without Borders' is reporting that Google.com , was no longer accessible in most Chinese provinces, and that the service was completely down throughout China on 31 May. The Google.cn Chinese language version, has not been affected.