Internet search giant Google has reportedly missed a deadline to re-register itself as an 'internet content provider' in China, signalling it could shut down its operation there.
However as pokesman for Google denied the reports, saying it was still "a bit early for such speculation".
Google UK denied the reports, which say the provider license, required by China for companies that operate a website inside the country has to be renew its license by the end of March.
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The news comes after a group of 27 Chinese advertising agencies sending Google a letter calling for talks over compensation for potential business losses.
The letter, confirmed on Wednesday by Google and one of the agencies, complained that the US firm kept them in the dark about whether it plans to make good on a threat to leave China over censorship and cyberattacks.
The 27 advertising resellers said Google has had no consultations with them since it said in January it was considering pulling the plug on google.cn, its Chinese search engine.
A copy of the letter was posted on the website of state-run China Central Television (CCTV).
"The only thing we can do is to wait - in unbearable agony and anxiety," the agencies said in the letter.
"If Google tells us now that we, our clients, employees, and investors have to bear the commercial risks of their business move... we absolutely cannot accept it!"
An official with one of the agencies confirmed to AFP on condition of anonymity that the firm had signed the letter.
It was sent this week to John Liu, a Google vice president who oversees sales and business development for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Google China spokeswoman Marsha Wang confirmed to AFP the company had received the letter.
"We are reviewing it," she told AFP, declining to provide further details.
