Google has “no plans” to relaunch a search engine in China though it is continuing to study the idea, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told a US congressional panel on Tuesday amid increased scrutiny of big tech firms.
Lawmakers and Google employees have raised concerns the company would comply with China’s internet censorship and surveillance policies if it re-enters the Asian nation’s search engine market, reports Reuters.
Google’s main search platform has been blocked in China since 2010, but the Alphabet Inc unit has been attempting to make new inroads into the country, which has the world’s largest number of smartphone users.
“Right now, there are no plans to launch search in China,” Pichai told the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
But he added that internally Google has “developed and looked at what search could look like. We’ve had the project underway for a while. At one point, we’ve had over 100 people working on it is my understanding.”
Pichai said there are no current discussions with the Chinese government. He vowed that he would be “fully transparent” with policymakers if the company brings search products to China.
In a letter in August to US lawmakers, Pichai said providing such a search engine would give “broad benefits” to China but that it was unclear whether Google could launch the service there.
A Chinese government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters last month that it was unlikely Google would get clearance to launch a search service in 2019.