Google China president Kai-Fu Lee is stepping down later this month, as the company battles rival Baidu and regulators seeking to clamp down on the internet search engine giant.
Mr Lee's duties will be taken up by two senior executives, the company announced, but his successor was not immediately named.
John Liu, currently Google's head of China sales, will be appointed vice president of sales and operations and take over Mr Lee's business and operational responsibilities, the company said in a statement.
Boon-Lock Yeo, now director of Google's Shanghai engineering office, will take on Mr Lee's engineering role at the company, it said.
China has accused Google of illegally spreading pornographic content and its service has been intermittently blocked in recent months.
The campaign is part of a wider crackdown on internet content that Beijing deems unhealthy, which has included pornography and information critical of authorities - a censorship system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China".
Google is also fighting to gain ground against rival Baidu, which is listed on the Nasdaq and often referred to as the homegrown Google.
The US firm accounted for 29.1 per cent of internet searches in the second quarter of 2009 compared with Baidu's 61.6 per cent share, according to iResearch, an internet research company.
One analyst said he did not believe Mr Lee's resignation was linked to the government crackdown.
"Lee said he would start a new venture helping young entrepreneurs. I think it matches his long-term interests very well," Lu Bowang, managing partner of China IntelliConsulting Corp. in Beijing, said.
In a statement issued by Google, Mr Lee said: "It has been a true honour and privilege to work with such an amazing company."
"With a very strong leadership team in place, it seemed a very good moment for me to move to the next chapter in my career," he added.
Mr Lee said in a blog on sina.com that he planned to create a "technology miracle with young Chinese" and would make an announcement next week to explain his plans.
"I have no regret with Google now, but I have a regret with my life that needs to be made up for," Mr Lee wrote. "I want to pass on my experiences in technology and business management to the young Chinese."
Mr Lee left Microsoft in 2005 to set up a China research centre for Google, sparking a legal battle between the two US giants over his move. Google senior vice president for engineering, Alan Eustace, said Mr Lee had made "an enormous contribution to Google" in the past four years.