I suspect Brin got into some hot water with the board over his surprising remarks earlier in the week that bordered on an apology for betraying the company’s principles with its censored China search engine. Here’s what they’re saying now.

Google Inc. is committed to doing business in China despite criticism the company has faced for abiding by Chinese government censorship restrictions, co-founder Sergey Brin said this week.

On Tuesday, after a session with several U.S. senators to discuss telecommunications legislation, Brin made comments that prompted some journalists to speculate Google intended to change or eliminate its operations in China.

In fact, he reiterated Google’s intention to move ahead with its google.cn site — a version of the leading Internet search engine that censors thousands of sites according to Chinese standards — as well as its global google.com site.

Brin told a small group of invited journalists: “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to do something different. Say, OK, let’s stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there”.

But he then added: “That’s an alternative path. It’s not the one we’ve chosen to take right now”.

Brin, who serves as a co-president of Google, said users in China have two options — slower speed search which is uncensored at http://www.google.com, or faster search, with limits set by Chinese authorities at http://www.google.cn/.

“If you are a normal Chinese user and you want to use Google, just go to google.com and you actually won’t get good service. Eventually you will go to google.cn,” Brin said.

Bad choices, I’m afraid.