Google terminated its Google Translate service in mainland China due to low usage.

On Monday, the US-based tech giant demonstrated that they have closed Google Translate benefits in mainland China “due to low usage”. However, statements have indicated that one of the few remaining services of Google in China had become unavailable since Saturday.

The service’s web page in China now exhibits a photo of a generic search bar that diverts users to Google’s Hong Kong translation site, which isn’t accessible from the mainland. “We have discontinued Google Translate in mainland China due to low usage,” a company deputy let out in a statement.

The users are also powerless to access the built-in translation on Google’s Chrome browser“, said a report by the South China Morning Post. 

Alphabet Inc’s Google always had a controversial relationship with Beijing, in 2010, the tech giant heaved its search engine from mainland China due to the government’s strict censorship laws.

The translation service’s discontinuation comes as US-China pressures have ratcheted up and both countries move to protect susceptible technologies and learned property.