There seems to exist a belief that China kicked Google out of the country at some point. I can’t find a record of even just the Chinese side claiming they have

There seems to exist a belief that China kicked Google out of the country at some point. I can’t find a record of even just the Chinese side claiming they have “evicted” Google. Perhaps the “Google doesn’t want to censor; kick Google out” version of events makes more sense with each year just because it’s simpler. It also distorts reality, though, so I think reminding everyone (including myself) the more mainstream timeline is worth a moment. Originally Google China was offering the censored version of search to users within China, which was a controversy. At some point a massive hack targeted Gmail accounts belonging to dissidents and activists of all kinds (from cryptography to Falun Gong religion). Google supposedly could’ve chosen to keep the breach to itself, but did made it public the next year and cited as a reason to reconsider its Chinese operations[0][1]. It’s true that Google’s competitors in search have continued to operate within Chinese market. They have been facing the same issues[2], and by the looks of the history of it many of similar events may well not be publicly known. As of now the only Google service available within mainland China that I know of is Google Translate. I believe it’s made available via servers in China, as the latency seems on par with other local apps. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China#Operation_Aurora_and_2010_withdrawal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China#Operation_Aurora_... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/nov/14/news.yahoo https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/nov/14/news.yaho...