China has launched an antitrust investigation into Google alongside retaliatory tariffs after the US imposed 10 per cent tariffs on products from the country.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it initiated the inquiry into the US internet search giant – which pulled its search service out of mainland China in 2010 – on suspicion that it violated the country’s antitrust laws, according to a one-line announcement on the regulator’s website on Tuesday.
The move is seen as part of China’s response to the tariffs imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump. The market regulator announced the move in tandem with China’s State Council announcing 15 per cent additional tariffs on US coal and liquefied natural gas, as well as 10 per cent additional tariffs on crude oil, agriculture machinery and pickup trucks.
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On Tuesday, the last day of the country’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced fresh export controls for certain metals: tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium. It also said it would put Calvin Klein owner PVH and biotech company Illumina on Beijing’s unreliable entity list.
The SAMR did not identify Google’s alleged violations. Most Google services – including search, Gmail, Google Maps – are not available in mainland China, but the US tech giant has maintained some operations in the country, particularly for advertising.
China’s antitrust watchdog has been increasingly flexing its muscles against US businesses amid escalating tech and trade wars between the two countries.
The agency in December launched an investigation into US chip giant Nvidia over its 2019 acquisition of Israeli interconnect products and solutions provider Mellanox Technologies in a move that was widely seen as a slap on the wrist for the biggest designer of artificial intelligence graphics processing units. The firm has been forced to curb China’s access to its most advanced chips in compliance with US export restrictions. The inquiry is still ongoing.
The antitrust investigation into Google is unusual given the company’s marginal presence in China’s domestic internet service market. Google has not disclosed its revenue from China, but US tech news outlet The Information in 2019 reported that the company earned more than US$3 billion in sales to China-based advertisers in 2018, an increase of 60 per cent year on year.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The SAMR’s antitrust investigations typically result in a fine. In 2013, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the agency in charge of antitrust inquiries at the time, launched an investigation into US mobile chip designer Qualcomm, which eventually agreed to pay a US$975 million fine to the Chinese government to end a 14-month inquiry.
Antitrust investigations are seen as a mild regulatory response compared with national security investigations. The Cyberspace Administration of China in May 2023 launched an investigation into US memory-chip maker Micron Technology over national and cybersecurity concerns. That resulted in Micron’s memory products being banned from China’s critical information infrastructure, costing the company US$4 billion in revenue.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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