Late last year, Google quietly registered a company in Shanghai’s Free-Trade Zone, apparently in preparation for ramping up its business operations in China.
The company—Pengji Information Technology (Shanghai) Ltd.—was registered on Dec. 25, 2014. Google Ireland Holdings is listed as Pengji Information Technology’s sole shareholder, and William Anthony Farris as the company’s legal representative.
Farris, registered with the State Bar of California, is a longtime Google employee in China. His LinkedIn account, which previously identified him as a Google China employee since June 2007, and “Managing Counsel, Greater China, Google,” is now no longer online. His Google+ account lists him as a “Lawyer for an Internet Company in Beijing.”
Farris also runs the Fei Chang Dao blog, which focuses on documenting Internet censorship in China.
Google Ireland Holdings is a subsidiary of Google and has earned a reputation as the company’s tax haven.
Neither Farris nor Google immediately responded to email inquiries.
