I think it's the same way Hollywood does these things to please the CCP. John Cena being the latest example.

Google might not be currently much active in China but continuing to do these "gestures" is basically trying to please the CCP for future. These are all moves being made for many years in advance. John Cena for example didn't just learn fluent mandarin to apologize to CCP over night. He had been learning it for many years because he knows the 1.5 billion population in China is going to make them more money than whatever they have in US.