It took a few months, but Google has finally had enough of China. Google and the Chinese government have been at odds ever since Google claimed that it systems were hacked by the Chinese. “In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google,” wrote Google Chief Legal Advisor David Drummond back in January. “However, it soon became clear that what at what first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.”

Since that time, a war of words has been escalating and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has even gotten involved. Now, Google has finally put its foot down with regards to China – it's tired of the network attacks and it's tired of censoring search results to appease the Chinese government.

“So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn,” wrote David Drummond, Google's Chief Legal Officer, on the company's official blog today. “Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.”

Drummond goes on to say that the Chinese government has been unwilling to compromise or hear Google's side of the argument when it comes to censorship, let alone the network intrusions that originated in China. Also noteworthy is that Drummond specifically mentions that U.S. executives alone were responsible for the decision to shut down Google.cn. “None of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them,” Drummond emphasized, likely in a nod to ensure that nothing fishy happens to the Chinese employees.

Despite the fact that Google.cn will cease to exist, Google maintains that it will continue to pursue its research and development efforts in China.