Larry Page says Google's China plans are no longer his decision
Page said that he handed off the responsibility to Sundar Pichai, the newly-appointed CEO of Google.
"I've also delegated this question to Sundar," Page said, in a rare public talk at the Fortune Global Forum in San Francisco on Monday night.
"I help him think about it," he said. But he added that because of the change in duties, "I don't have to answer this question."
Google famously pulled out many of its operations from mainland China, including its Chinese search engine, in 2010, following a dispute with Beijing over censorship and cyberattacks that Google claimed it traced to China.
But there have been reports recently that Google is weighing once again increasing its presence in China, the world's largest Internet market by users, particularly with its Android app store. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Google is in talks with Chinese government officials about a special version of its Play store that carries only apps approved by the government.
Sergey Brin, who cofounded the company with Page, also recently raised the possibility of a return to China. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in late October, he reportedly suggested that Google and other Alphabet subsidiaries could return to the country.
"Each Alphabet business can make its own decisions on which countries to operate in," Brin told the Journal.
Google recently restructured its corporate organization into the Alphabet holding company. Under the new structure, the traditional internet business, including the search engine, Android business and online maps, operate as a distinct company by the name of Google and led by Pichai, separate from other Alphabet projects such as its Nest smart appliances business and healthcare.
In Page's view, though,Google has always had a presence in China despite not having a presence with its flagship search engine.
"We've always had operations in China, we have big ops there," Page said. "By far, Android is still most used operating system in China."