China retaliated towards tariffs from the USA on Tuesday with a collection of measures that took intention at American corporations. Together with imposing tariffs and import restrictions, the nation mentioned, it had launched an antitrust investigation into Google.
The announcement of the investigation was imprecise — only one line on a Chinese language company’s web site. Nevertheless it thrust Google, whose search engine is unavailable in China, into the center of a geopolitical dispute and added to the corporate’s lengthy listing of regulatory complications.
A Google spokesman declined to touch upon the Chinese language authorities’s investigation.
Google has the world’s most generally used search engine, and in addition leads the marketplace for digital promoting. The corporate has confronted antitrust investigations around the globe, together with in the USA, Canada, Europe and South Korea.
Whereas it’s nonetheless unclear how China’s antimonopoly investigation will develop, it may have an effect on Google’s dealings with Chinese language corporations. Right here’s extra concerning the firm’s restricted operations there:
What did China announce?
China’s antitrust authority, the State Administration for Market Regulation, mentioned it deliberate to research Google. The authority accused Google of violating an antimonopoly regulation with out offering any further particulars.
The identical physique has been investigating Nvidia, the American chip-making large, on antitrust grounds since December.
Isn’t Google banned in China?
Google’s core merchandise are unavailable in China due to the nation’s censorship restrictions. The corporate’s search engine, video platform YouTube and Play Retailer for apps are all unavailable within the nation.
Does Google function in China?
Google mentioned it maintains a restricted presence in China, with most of its exercise targeted on serving to Chinese language corporations join with prospects and audiences outdoors of the nation. This consists of offering Android, its cell working system, to Chinese language cellphone makers like Lenovo, Xiaomi and Vivo. Android code is open supply, so cellphone makers can use it for gratis.
The Silicon Valley firm additionally lets Chinese language corporations promote on Google and YouTube outdoors of China. Temu, the worldwide arm of the Chinese language e-commerce large Pinduoduo, has flooded Google with adverts for cheap items to realize extra prospects in the USA. Shein, a Chinese language clothes firm, additionally advertises on Google providers outdoors of China.
How has Google’s relationship with China developed?
Google has a troublesome historical past in China. The corporate pulled its search engine out of China in 2010 due to authorities censorship and what the corporate mentioned was a cyberattack from Chinese language hackers attempting to realize entry to human rights activists’ e-mail accounts.
Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, mentioned on the time that the corporate objected to China’s “totalitarian” insurance policies when it got here to censorship, political speech and web communications.
However as China’s web grew, Google was tempted to leap again in. In 2018, the corporate was growing a search app for China referred to as Dragonfly, which might have censored data that was banned by the Chinese language authorities. The challenge prompted outrage amongst Google staff and in 2019, the corporate mentioned it stopped the trouble.
Google additionally opened a middle for synthetic intelligence in China in 2017, saying “the science of A.I. has no borders.” Two years later, the corporate shut the middle and emphasised that it was now not conducting A.I. analysis in China.
