I think that's an oversimplification of the history. After the email hacking, Google decided to stop censoring in retaliation, and redirected traffic to HK. Eve

I think that's an oversimplification of the history. After the email hacking, Google decided to stop censoring in retaliation, and redirected traffic to HK. Eventually, they were blocked, and a few years layer, practically all Google services were blocked. It's not like Gmail was "pulled" from China, the GFW blocks it. Sooner or later, even if Search was still being censored, the other services would probably be blocked, or have unacceptable conditions imposed on them. The amount of effort to make YouTube and Gmail bend to PRC desires I think would have been a bridge too far. Once Xi Jinping took office especially. I mean, I've seen super mild videos on Bilibili, where say a Mainland athlete or contestant loses to a Taiwanese one get removed. YouTube would be overloaded quite quickly by 50 cent army takedown requests.