Wasn't aware of that, but it sure makes sense, thanks.

There are millions of people in China with always on VPNs, and they still have a non-insubstantial business in the country.

The thing is, the geographic data there is protected by law, and they don't want an espionage charge.

The same is provably true for a suspicious missing of a few other countries with similar attitudes.

But Google probably doesn't want to rub that fact in China's face and risk a more aggressive crackdown.

If you're using a VPN, your location won't show up as mainland China.

VPN goes not affect GPS signal as far as I know

I think that the location services use a mix of IP-based and GPS-based localization - GPS doesn't work too well indoors, while getting your IP from your wireless router (ie internet provider) is much more reliable.

Hong Kong is available though: https://www.gstatic.com/covid19/mobility/2020-03-29_HK_Mobil...

Still in full lock down.

Why is Russia missing?