As I understand it, Google actually had been cooperating with China's censorship requests, but didn't like it, and Google made the decision themselves[1] to relocate offices [ED: web search was moved but Google maintains offices in mainland China] to Hong Kong rather than continue self-censorship.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/mar/23/google-ch...

Google didn't "relocate" to Hong Kong, their offices in Wudaokou kept running, they just shutdown their Mainland-based webserver.

And redirected it to Hong Kong, which was then blocked, because they weren’t playing ball anymore.

Yes, but google still has other business in china (android, selling ads to Chinese customers). They sacrificed their web search business, but not everything else.

I'm pretty sure nothing Google-related works in China. Youtube/search/gmail etc. are all blocked.

They have Android phones but no Google services on them. They do sell ads there but to companies targeting Chinese people outside of China.

They just recently opened a new office in Shenzhen, so something is going on, but I mostly agree.

There are a few services that work. Google Translate is available, and you can connect to gmail using an email client instead of the website.

I apologize for my misleading statements. From my amateur reading of the coverage at the time, I had no idea of this; I appreciate the additional information.

China banned their citizens from accessing a network.

That's very different than banning a famous, physical product.