Google left the Chinese mainland in 2010 over self-censorship issues after the Chinese government had decried that tech companies from outside China will have to impose self-censorship to curtail anti-China results. In fact Google had accused the Chinese government of launching a cyber-attack on it and many other tech companies. Mr Schmidt echoed comments by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who said last week some services would return to China. Schmidt made these remarks during a speech at the Tech Crunch Beijing conference. He said thatGoogle had a lot of partners in China and was in regular contact with the country’s government about its presence and services. “The interesting thing is that Google never left China,” he said. Schmidt also added that Google’s presence in the country helped it maintain contact with Chinese companies keen to advertise on Google’s services outside China. Many Chinese companies use Google’s services to advertise their products in USA and other countries. Schmidt however, did not provide details of what Google planned to expand or launch on the Chinese mainland. but industry watchers said it was likely that a Chinese version of Google’s Android Play store for apps would be one of the first. Brin had last week said that Google’s recent re-structuring had given the company’s units more independence, which might mean some launch in China before others. Each Alphabet business could now make its own decision about where it operated, he told the Wall Street Journal.
