Google, which has long censored its searches in acquiescence to Chinese censorship laws, has decided to stop the self-censoring and live with the consequences. The move is likely to make Google more popular with…well, everyone outside of China…but make them a bit of a pariah in China for a while. Google-China relations are about to get much worse, it seems:

It means one of the world’s most prominent corporations is saying it is no longer willing to co-operate in China’s censorship of the internet, our correspondent says.

China has moved to further limit free speech on the web – Google’s own websites and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists have recently come under cyber attack.

China, for its part, has suggested that this shouldn’t affect US-China relations unless the U.S. seeks to politicize the controversy.