Google Inc. looks to be standing in defiance of China, in a risky move it claims helps improve access to information to Chinese residents.

Google announced it will no longer censor its search services on its Chinese search site, and instead redirect its users to its Hong Kong site. That site will offer uncensored search results in simplified Chinese.

Google had been censoring certain search results in accordance with Chinese laws, CNNMoney.com reported. By dropping censorship, Chinese officials said Google broke an agreement made when Google entered the market, Bloomberg reported.

Google announced in January that it and more than 20 other U.S. companies had been victims of a sophisticated cyber attack that originated in China. During its investigation Google said it uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being accessed routinely by third parties.

“These attacks and the surveillance they uncovered — combined with attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the Web in China including the persistent blocking of Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger –had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn (Google China),” Google wrote on its official blog.

Google said that although the Chinese government has been “crystal clear” in discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement, the company believes this solution is entirely legal and will increase access to information for the Chinese people.

“We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services,” Google wrote.

Hong Kong has a separate government and economy, and at the time it was handed over to China from the British, China had promised to preserve its capitalistic system and free press for an additional 50 years, Bloomberg reported. This move forces the Chinese to take the next step, according to sources in Bloomberg’s report.

Google may also lose partners in China, such as billionaire Li Ka-shing and media buyer Zenith Optimedia, according to Bloomberg.