Google may return to China, but with a doctored version of the search engine
Beijing/San Francisco — Alphabet’s Google plans to launch a version of its search engine in China that will block some websites and search terms, two sources said, in a move that could mark its return to a market it abandoned eight years ago on censorship concerns. The plan comes even as China has stepped up scrutiny into business dealings involving US tech firms including Facebook, Apple and Qualcomm amid intensifying trade tension between Beijing and Washington. Google, which quit China’s search engine market in 2010, has been actively seeking ways to re-enter China where many of its products are blocked by regulators. The Intercept earlier reported Google’s China plans on Wednesday, citing internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans. The project is code named "Dragonfly" and has been under way since the spring of 2017, the news website said. Progress on the project picked up after a December meeting between Google CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government of...
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