Alphabet chairman unsure whether Google can do more good being in China with censored search engine

Alphabet chairman John Hennessy is unsure about a banner strategy of the company’s most-important executive.

Hennessy said he is not confident Google will be better off bringing a censored search engine to China -- a key goal of Google chief executive Sundar Pichai.

“The question that I think comes to my mind then, that I struggle with, is are we better off giving Chinese citizens a decent search engine, a capable search engine even if it is restricted and censored in some cases, than a search engine that’s not very good? And does that improve the quality of their lives?” Hennessy told Bloomberg’s Brad Stone.

Asked whether Google can do more good by being in China, even on a compromised basis, Hennessy said, “I don’t know the answer to that. I think it’s -- I think it’s a legitimate question".

“Anybody who does business in China compromises some of their core values,“ he said. ”Every single company, because the laws in China are quite a bit different than they are in our own country.”