"Google is, of course, no exception," he added.

Global Internet users who visit google.cn increased 9.9 percent during the past seven days, according to figures from Alexa.com, an Internet traffic tracker.

Traffic to "g.cn", a shorter domain name that Google owns for Google.cn, also increased 20 percent during the period.

Google China said yesterday in an online statement that the company was functioning as usual. It said reports about Google shutting down its Chinese offices are not true, and employees are still at work.