“Google Pursuing a Return to China”, 4 Sep 2015

Google Inc. is in talks with Chinese government officials and handset makers about launching a new Android app store there, according to people familiar with matter, a move that would mark the Internet company’s return to the world’s second-largest economy.

For more than a year, Google has been working on a version of its Play app store that includes only apps and services approved by the Chinese government, those people said. This app store would come installed on new smartphones made for the Chinese market that run on Google’s licensed version of Android, the people said…

Getting a version of the Play store on Google-approved Android phones in China would help the company better control the operating system and generate revenue from apps…Long-term, Google hopes to resume services such as search and Gmail for Android devices in China. That is more sensitive because it would likely require storing user data in China and giving the government a way to monitor information. That would represent a major about-face by Google on issues of censorship and data privacy and isn’t part of the current plan, a person familiar with the situation said…