Google: China Blocking Gmail

Google GOOG, the largest U.S. provider of Internet search services, is once again tussling with the Chinese government, this time claiming Beijing is making it difficult for users to access their Gmail accounts.

California-based Google said its engineers have discovered there are no technical issues with the Gmail service or the Web site itself.

"We have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail," Google said in a statement, according to Bloomberg News.

Google knocked heads with Beijing last year over censorship issues causing the company to cede market share to Baidu BIDU, China's largest provider of Internet search services.

China is the world's largest Internet market by users with 457 million Chinese able to access the Internet, though that is just a fraction of the country's 1.33 billion population. Other popular Web sites currently blocked by Chinese authorities include Facebook and Twitter.