China retaliated against tariffs from the United States on Tuesday with a series of measures that took aim at American companies. Along with imposing tariffs and import restrictions, the country said, it had launched an antitrust investigation into Google.
The announcement of the investigation was vague — just one line on a Chinese agency’s website. But it thrust Google, whose search engine is unavailable in China, into the middle of a geopolitical dispute and added to the company’s long list of regulatory headaches.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the Chinese government’s investigation.
Google has the world’s most widely used search engine, and also leads the market for digital advertising. The company has faced antitrust investigations around the world, including in the United States, Canada, Europe and South Korea.
While it’s still unclear how China’s antimonopoly investigation will develop, it could affect Google’s dealings with Chinese companies. Here’s more about the company’s limited operations there:
What did China announce?
China’s antitrust authority, the State Administration for Market Regulation, said it planned to investigate Google. The authority accused Google of violating an antimonopoly law without providing any additional details.
The same body has been investigating Nvidia, the American chip-making giant, on antitrust grounds since December.
Isn’t Google banned in China?
Google’s core products are unavailable in China because of the country’s censorship restrictions. The company’s search engine, video platform YouTube and Play Store for apps are all unavailable in the country.
Does Google operate in China?
Google said it maintains a limited presence in China, with most of its activity focused on helping Chinese companies connect with customers and audiences outside of the country. This includes providing Android, its mobile operating system, to Chinese phone makers like Lenovo, Xiaomi and Vivo. Android code is open source, so phone makers can use it at no cost.
The Silicon Valley company also lets Chinese companies advertise on Google and YouTube outside of China. Temu, the international arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, has flooded Google with ads for inexpensive goods to gain more customers in the United States. Shein, a Chinese clothing company, also advertises on Google services outside of China.
How has Google’s relationship with China evolved?
Google has a difficult history in China. The company pulled its search engine out of China in 2010 because of government censorship and what the company said was a cyberattack from Chinese hackers trying to gain access to human rights activists’ email accounts.
Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, said at the time that the company objected to China’s “totalitarian” policies when it came to censorship, political speech and internet communications.
But as China’s internet grew, Google was tempted to jump back in. In 2018, the company was developing a search app for China called Dragonfly, which would have censored information that was banned by the Chinese government. The project prompted outrage among Google employees and in 2019, the company said it stopped the effort.
Google also opened a center for artificial intelligence in China in 2017, saying “the science of A.I. has no borders.” Two years later, the company shut the center and emphasized that it was no longer conducting A.I. research in China.