Google has long sought to have a bigger presence in China, the world’s largest internet market, but has come under fire over the past months for not taking a harder line against the Chinese government amid protracted trade dispute between Washington and Beijing over tariffs.
US President Donald Trump initiated what is effectively a trade war with China in April, when he first imposed unusually heavy tariffs on imports from the Asian country. Beijing has in response imposed retaliatory tariffs on $50 billion worth of US products.
The US imported nearly $500 billion worth of products from China last year while exporting about $130 billion in American goods to the country in the same period.