#Google ditched China cloud project over political tensions: report

Google recently ditched an effort to launch cloud computing services in China and other countries amid concerns about growing political tensions, according to a report.

The tech behemoth in May scrapped its “Isolated Region” project, in which Google planned to offer cloud services in “politically sensitive” countries that would be controlled by a government agency, local company or other third party, Bloomberg News reported.

The project reportedly would have paved the way for Google to grow its burgeoning cloud business in places with tough rules for companies that gather or process user data, such as China and the European Union.

But global tensions — such as the Trump administration’s national security sanctions against the Chinese telecom firm Huawei — created obstacles to the project’s success, as did the “fallout” from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg’s report.

The company had already put plans to bring the service to China on hold in January 2019 and shifted its focus to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the news service reported. Google has reportedly considered launching a limited version of its cloud platform in China since the project was shelved.

But a Google spokeswoman told Bloomberg that neither politics nor the pandemic led to Isolated Region’s demise. She also reportedly indicated that Google is not considering bringing cloud services to China, a country with about 900 million internet users.

“What we learned from customer conversations and input from government stakeholders in Europe and elsewhere is that other approaches we were actively pursuing offered better outcomes,” the Google spokeswoman told Bloomberg. “Google does not offer and has not offered cloud platform services inside China.”