The Financial Times claims that Google is 99.9 per cent certain that it must shut down its Chinese search engine.

Talks with China over censorship have broken down with neither side giving ground. Quoting a deep throat inside Google, the FT claims that Google had drawn up detailed plans for closing its Chinese search engine. It is likely that a while a decision could be made very soon, Google was likely to take some time to follow through with its plans.

One of the main concerns is that local employees could be targeted for retaliation by authorities. China told Google that it would not be allowed to flout the country's laws. China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong, told reporters on Friday if Google did not respect Chinese laws, and was unfriendly and irresponsible, then it must face the consequences.