China says they won't limit use of Google Android OS

They might not like Google's pesky search engine, but the Chinese government seems open to letting the Google Android OS stay on their smartphones.

The whole situation has turned into a real mess, given Google's many industries and China's annoyance with only some of them, apparently. One day, Google says its going to delay the release of some Android-based mobile phones, and the next, it's making plans to release some others on three different Chinese carriers.

[ZDNet News Special Coverage - Special Report: Google, China showdown]

According to theWall Street Journal, a spokesman from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the Android OS is welcome in the country.

So does this mean that Google will be departing entirely? Pull an all-or-nothing move? That might be a bad financial decision, at least concerning their mobile phone market now that Apple is going around telling everyone that they're the "largest mobile devices company in the world."

Given that this is China's first official response to the dispute in the past few weeks, it might be only the beginning of the great China vs. Google war.