Google has publicly announced that it will not be attending a Beijing developer's conference for the Android platform, in a sign that relations between the search giant and the Chinese government are becoming ever more strained.
Two other conferences for Android in Hong Kong and Taiwan are still on Google's to-do list, however, but the significance of postponing a visit to China's capital city is obvious.
Although Google caused a stir in January when it claimed that it would be pulling out of the Chinese search market, the firm has continued to operate all of its businesses within the country whilst ironing out its differences with the government.
Google seems intent on preventing Android making it to the Chinese market, as this latest news comes only a month after it prevented the release of Android-based smartphones from LG and Samsung.
The potential market for Google's products in China is vast and it is obviously in the firm's interest to keep its presence felt from a financial point of view.
However, ideological differences over censorship of search results seem to be driving some of Google's decision making.
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