Google has acquired a stake in Tianya Club, one of China's largest online forums, the site announced Monday. The size of the stake was not disclosed.

This deal apparently links to a new Chinese Q&A community site, Wenda, which is a joint venture between the two. Its format will be similar to the retired Google Answers, or the Russian Otvety, which resurfaced earlier this year.

According to a citation by Reuters, it is estimated that Wenda's launch puts Google's stake at between 10 and 60 percent, but no official confirmation has been made.

Tianya Club, launched in 1999, has been a popular forum for politicians to answer citizens' question, which played down Google's influence in China. The company blog suggested it is easier for Google to operate the site as an alliance or joint venture, instead of a fully-controlled property like in Russia, due to the fact that Tianya already has an Internet Content Provider license.

Compared to other competitors – Yahoo! previously used 3721.com's ICP license, eBay used Eachnet's and Amazon has operated under Joyo's – Google already has preliminary approval for its own ICP license.