<< Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a Q&A at the TED conference in California that he and Google “want to work within the Chinese system” to bring uncensored results to the Chinese people. Though he’s not expecting immediate success, he said “maybe in a year or two.” >>

http://mashable.com/2010/02/13/google-sergey-brin-ted-china/

I asked Google Press a question about this just now, this partly sounds like they're sending mixed signals... they previously said they want to either stop censoring or leave, whereas this comment sounds a bit different (unless "one or two years" is truly the time frame they planned for this discussion with the authorities).

So they got all the good publicity for standing up to China but in reality it's business as usual.

Tadeusz is right. If Google intended to do something about this, they'd be announcing specific plans, even if they weren't actually doing it now. There's no credible reason why this would be possible in two years but is not possible now.

In the UK, when a company says that something is too difficult to do now but that they intend to do it in the future, it's virtually guaranteed that it won't happen.

The entrepreneurs have turned skeptical on investments in China. The start-ups in China will get affected. The Chinese government will never back down on the censorship issue. If they do, their power will weaken and they will descend.

http://aglasem.com/theurge/the-great-fall-of-china/