Microsoft said it will stick to its development strategy for the China Internet search market regardless of the outcome of Google's high-profile spat with Beijing.

"Regardless of whether or not Google stays, we will aggressively promote our search and cloud computing (in China)," Zhang Yaqin, chairman of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific R&D Group, told Reuters on Friday, on the sidelines of the opening of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, in Beijing.