Asked if he himself was a gladiator entrepreneur, Lee said: "As much as a multinational head can be. A Gladiator in my book represents the kind of do-whatever-it-takes-to-succeed person.
"Now, there was clearly lines I could not cross," Lee continued. "I did not cross them. But within all the boundaries of what I could do and yes, some gray boundaries, I did the best I could to get as much (market) share for Google."
Lee has said that US companies don't understand the Chinese market. Lee was asked whether Google and then CEO Eric Schmidt failed to understand? Did they provide him with the resources he needed to succeed?
"I think Eric was my big champion," Lee said. "I think he supported what I did. I basically got the resources I needed from HQ. There were constraints. Had there been no constraints Google would have been even more successful but those constraints were put in place to protect the values of the company."
Asked to specify the kind of restraints he was referring, Lee declined. As he has done numerous times in recent weeks, Lee said that he didn't think Google will succeed in China should it return.