Exclusive | Is Google another step closer to being unblocked in China?
If negotiations go through, Google Scholar may be search giant’s first service to re-enter world’s biggest internet market, Chinese lawmaker reveals
Google is still in talks with Beijing over its plans to return to the mainland Chinese market, according to a senior Chinese lawmaker and former top official with knowledge of the negotiations.
“China has been in touch with Google through various channels. Last year, leaders of our country’s important department had further communication with Google,” said Liu Binjie, a standing committee member of the National People’s Congress and former head of the General Administration of Press and Publication.
Google Scholar, a search engine for scholarly literature, was among the services on Beijing’s priority list for re-entry, according to Liu, who was speaking to the Sunday Morning Post on the sidelines of the China’s annual plenary sessions in Beijing on Friday.
There was hope that a part of Google’s business would return to China first, gradually followed by others, the lawmaker said.
“The academic sector will be the first to get through,” Liu said. “China’s focus is on [making] academic progress, such as academic exchanges as well as [exchanges in] science and culture, instead of news, information or politics.”