“As of yesterday noon, all the databases have been in a state of closure because relevant government Internet supervision departments were censoring our databases,” a member of customer service staff at Sina.com told AFP. “It affects not just Sina, but Sohu as well, so our search engines are not in use.”

While many have argued over the government’s strict Internet censorship, Chinese authorities defend their actions. As ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told journalists at a routine briefing Tuesday, “The Chinese government has been taking an active role in the development of the Internet,” Yu said. “As (well as) many other countries, China has managed the development in accordance with laws, we believe it is a rational management.”

Sina’s staff member shared with the AFP that access to the site will be back up on Thursday.

Following his discussions with US senators regarding telecommunications legislations earlier this week, Brin made comments to journalists that prompted some to speculate that Google intended to change or eliminate its operations in China.

In fact, Reuters reports that Brin reiterated Google’s intention to move ahead with its Google.cn site — a version of the leading Internet search engine that censors thousands of sites according to Chinese standards — as well as its global google.com site.

Brin told a select group of invited journalists: “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to do something different. Say, OK, let’s stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there”.

But then, he added: “That’s an alternative path. It’s not the one we’ve chosen to take right now.”

Brin, who serves as a co-president of Google, said users in China now have two options — slower speed search which is uncensored at the regular Google.com, or faster search with limits set by Chinese authorities at Google.cn. “If you are a normal Chinese user and you want to use Google, just go to google.com and you actually won’t get good service. Eventually you will go to google.cn,” Brin added.

As part of its plan announced in January to begin operating directly in China, Google nixed its e-mail, blogging and chat room services, where freeform discussion could cause trouble for Google with Chinese authorities.

Still, at another news briefing in Beijing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the Chinese government viewed Google’s involvement in the country positively.

The blog, allegedly written by a research assistant employed by the Beijing bureau of The New York Times, dared to take up touchy issues like China’s relationship with Taiwan, and presumably employed such no-no phrases as “democracy”, “freedom” and “human rights”—and as a result, got the official smackdown from both the Chinese government and Microsoft.

Explaining why a company based in the US, with all its laws ensuring freedom of speech, would capitulate to communist influences, Microsoft spokeswoman Brooke Richardson told the AP, “When we operate in markets around the world, we have to ensure that our service complies with global laws as well as local laws and norms.”

Free speech advocates, unsurprisingly, aren’t taking any comfort in that explanation. But many businesses are coming to Microsoft’s defense, pointing out that this is just the way the game is played in the international marketplace. Funny how life so often breaks down along these lines when it comes to the almighty dollar… or should I say, yen?