And? They were booted out of China over 12 years ago. 3 years ago isn't that long, in that timeline. Given their known attempts to get back in, it's likely there are other such secret initiatives we don't know about.

China represents a huge potential market for Google that their investors won't let leadership forget about.

3 years ago some team was probing reopening search in China and when more employees found out about it they leaked and protested the project, shutting it down. Hardly seems like a point against Google.

> China represents a huge potential market for Google that their investors won't let leadership forget about.

China represents a huge potential market that Google investors have already given up on because no one is expecting that market to reopen to Google any time soon