The famous photograph of a man stopping a tank during the 1989 Tiananmen protests can now be seen on the internet via Google's Chinese search engine.

The photograph, which is a symbol of the brutally repressed Tiananmen protests, is banned in China. On Tuesday, the internet company announced it would no longer comply with Beijing's censorship rules, and threatened to end its operations there. Google's new policy was provoked by a sophisticated cyber attacks on the e-mail accounts of a number of Chinese human rights activists.

In a first official reaction, the Chinese government says foreign companies are welcome in China, as long as they obey the law. Beijing emphasises it condemns any kind of cyber attack. A state-owned newspaper wrote that a possible departure of Google from China would be a major loss to the country.

The famous photograph of the Tiananmen protests (Flickr/laihiu)