Google Deals in Doubt Amid Spat with Beijing

China issued a blistering public attack against Google on Wednesday and appeared to quietly begin getting businesses to abandon the U.S. Internet giant after it moved its controversial Chinese search engine offshore.

The critical remarks in a high-profile Communist Party newspaper coupled with souring business deals underscored Beijing's determination to settle scores with Google Inc. after a public two-month dispute over stringent Chinese censorship policies. By challenging the often tetchy government, Google appears to have violated an unspoken rule of doing business in China, especially in the Internet industry whose control Beijing sees as crucial to maintaining its authoritarian rule.

"Everybody in the Internet space operates under the good graces of the government, and if the government's not happy with your partner, you probably are going to have to change," said T.R. Harrington, founder and CEO of Shanghai-based Darwin Marketing, which specializes in advertising for China's search engine market.
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