Google has 'no plans' to relaunch Chinese search engine, CEO says

Google has "no plans" torelaunch a search engine in China though it is continuing tostudy the idea, chief executive officer Sundar Pichai told a U.S.congressional panel on Tuesday amid increased scrutiny of bigtech firms.

Lawmakers and Google employees have raised concerns thecompany would comply with China's internet censorship andsurveillance policies if it re-enters the Asian nation's searchengine market.

Google's main search platform has been blocked in Chinasince 2010, but the Alphabet Inc. unit has beenattempting to make new inroads into the country, which has theworld's largest number of smartphone users.

"Right now, there are no plans to launch search in China,"Pichai told the U.S. House of Representatives judiciary committee.

But he added that Google has "developed andlooked at what search could look like. We'vehad the projectunderway for a while. At one point, we've had over 100 peopleworking on it, is my understanding."

Promise of transparency

Pichai said there are no current discussions with theChinese government. He vowed that he would be "fullytransparent" with policymakers if the company brings searchproducts to China.

In a letter in August to U.S. lawmakers, Pichai saidproviding such a search engine would give "broad benefits" toChina but that it was unclear whether Google could launch theservice there.

A Chinese government official, speaking on the condition ofanonymity, told Reuters last month that it was unlikely Googlewould get clearance to launch a search service in 2019.

Pichai did not say what steps Google would take to complywith Chinese laws if it re-entered the market.

Under questioning from Democratic Rep.DavidCicilline, Pichai said he would "happy to engage" to discusslegislation that would empower the U.S. Federal Trade Commission toaddress discriminatory conduct online.

Cicilline told Pichai it was "hard for me to imagine thatyou could operate in the Chinese market under the currentgovernment framework and maintain a commitment to universalvaluessuch as freedom of expression and personal privacy."

The company's rivals in shopping and travel searches havelong complained about being demoted in Google search results.

Denying 'partisan activities'

Much of the House hearing focused on Republican concernsthat Google's search results are biased against conservativesand that the company had sought to influence the outcome of the2016 presidential election.

Democrats rejected that claim as "fantasy," and at least onesaid the search results highlighted more conservative voices.

Pichai said the search engine attempts to help peopleregister to vote or find a polling place, but rejectedassertions the company paid for Latino voters' transportation topolls in some states.

"We don't engage in partisan activities," Pichai told thepanel.

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging the results of its dominant search engine to suppress conservative viewpoints and highlight coverage from media that he says distribute "fake news."

The company has denied any political bias, and there's no evidence of an anti-conservative tilt.Pichaisaid in his written testimony that "I lead this company without political bias and work to ensure that our products continue to operate that way. To do otherwise would go against our core principles and our business interests."

Google has good reason to communicate with lawmakers and policy-makers and to seek to weigh in on thorny issues. Trump and some lawmakers have raised the possibility of asking regulators to investigate whether Google which handles nearly two of every three online searches in the U.S. has abused its clout as a major gateway to theinternetto stifle competition.

And momentum is building in Congress for legislation to put stricter limits and privacy protections around the big tech companies' collection of data. With the Democrats having captured control of the House in the midterm electionsand poised to take over as the majority running the judiciary committee next month, tougher legislation could be in the offing.

Pichai, a former engineer, took the helm of Google in 2015 in a major restructuring that made Google a division of conglomerate Alphabet Inc. whose businesses includeWaymo, a self-driving technology development company.

Bolstering the dominance of its search engine, Google's Android operating system runs most of the world'ssmartphones, and its other services includingGmail,YouTube, online ads and the Chrome web browser are widely used.