In an unexpected turn of events, Google announced today its Chinese operating license has been renewed, The Washington Post reported today.

Although Google receives just a small share of its revenue from its operations in the country, many experts see this move as a compromise by Google to appease China, because exiting the country completely would have meant locking out potential opportunities in the world's largest market of online and mobile users.

"We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide Web search and local products to our users in China,"Google's chief legal officer David Drummond wrote in the online giant's blog.

In January, Google announced it was rethinking how businesses was being done in China, following the breach of Gmail accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists. The "highly sophisticated" cyber attacks originated from within China. In March, the company officially removed its search site from Chinese servers, submerging the country in a partial Google blackout, and moved its moved its search operations off the mainland to Hong Kong.

Because of China's "One Country, Two Systems" policy, Hong Kong has many of its own laws, which don't include the censorship requirements that the Beijing government has imposed. When Chinese users on the mainland attempted to go to Google.cn, they were directed to Google.co.hk, which aims to bypass those requirements.