In 2010, Google had a disagreement with the Chinese government over content censorship and shut down its Chinese search service as a result. Instead, Google switched to a Hong Kong domain name (www.google.com.hk) and servers, in order to provide uncensored, unfiltered search engine service for the public. However, the website eventually became inaccessible in mainland China.

Google's Chinese-language statement on withdrawing from China states: "On January 12, we announced on this blog that Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers. We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger—had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn."

After Google announced its official withdrawal from China, many netizens laid memorial flowers in tribute at Google's then headquarters in Beijing.

References: ; [Google(Chinese)] (https://www.google.cn/press/new-approach-to-china/update.html); [端傳媒("Initium Media")(Chinese)] (https://theinitium.com/article/20151216-mainland-google/)