Google app for China in the works

Firm seeking ways to re-enter a market it left over censorship concern

Alphabet Inc’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, which was criticised by human rights advocates, comes as China has stepped up scrutiny of business dealings involving US tech firms including Facebook, Apple and Qualcomm amid intensifying tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Google, which quit China’s search engine market in 2010, has been seeking ways to reenter China where many of its products are blocked.

The Intercept reported Google’s China plans on Wednesday, citing internal documents and people familiar with the plans.

The project is codenamed ‘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’s Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, it added.

Search terms about human rights, democracy and religion among others will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app, The Intercept said.

Rough timeframe

Search terms about human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protests will be among the words blacklisted in the search engine app, which The Intercept said had already been demonstrated to Beijing.

The finalised version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials, it added.

Chinese state-owned Securities Times, however, said reports of the return of Google’s search engine to China were not true, citing information from “relevant departments”.

But a Google employee familiar with the censored version of the search engine confirmed to Reuters that the project was alive and genuine.

Separately, a Chinese official with knowledge of the plans said Google has been in contact with authorities at the Cyberspace Administration of China about a modified search program.