Sawt Falasteen - China says to probe Google over anti-monopoly violations

Beijing's State Administration for Market Regulation said the US tech giant was "suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China".

It has "launched an investigation into Google in accordance with the law" as a result, the administration said in a statement.

It did not provide further details about the allegations against Google.

The US tech behemoth's core search engine and many of its services are blocked in mainland China, where US internet titans have long struggled with doing business due to the "Great Firewall" that blocks politically sensitive content.

Google in 2011 abandoned its Chinese-language search engine in the mainland and transferred it to Hong Kong.

By 2014, China blocked the last remaining way to access Google's email service Gmail.

Beijing also said Tuesday it would add US fashion group PVH Corp. -- which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein -- and biotech giant Illumina to a list of "unreliable entities".

The move would "safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, in accordance with relevant laws", China's commerce ministry said in a statement.

"The above two entities violate normal market transaction principles, interrupt normal transactions with Chinese enterprises, and take discriminatory measures against Chinese enterprises," it added.

China in September said it was investigating PVH for an "unreasonable" boycott of cotton from its Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of widespread rights violations.

AFP has reached out to all three firms for comment.

The United States on Saturday announced sweeping measures against major trade partners, with goods from China facing an additional 10 percent tariff on top of existing duties.

Trump said the measures aimed to punish countries for failing to halt flows of illegal migrants and drugs including fentanyl into the United States.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST