China’s military is getting stronger,
and it needs foreign technology.
Is Google helping the Chinese military?
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Google.
It’s not the first Western company
to do business in China—
not by a long shot.
But when it comes to tech companies,
Google was always the good guy,
with its famous motto,
“Don’t be evil.”
That is, until Google
conveniently removed that motto last year.
And you may also remember,
a few months later,
employees leaked Google’s plans
to launch a censored search engine for China.
And then Google employees protested,
saying launching a censored Chinese search engine
would definitely be evil.
Obviously they missed the point.
It’s ok for Google to be evil
now that they’ve changed their motto!
Sadly, Google is under fire again.
This time, from President Trump.
And while it’s not exactly for being evil,
it *is* for being “terrible”.
“Google is helping China and their military,
but not the U.S. Terrible!”
Like many of Trump’s tweets,
this was met by some...skepticism from the media.
In an article called “Trump Now Just Accusing Google
of Aiding the Chinese Military, or Whatever,”
tech news website Gizmodo wrote that
“Most likely...the president heard
some kind of sound bite about Google and China...
but did not mull the specifics
before using it as an opportunity
to lob another wild accusation at the company.”
To be fair, it *is* hard to picture Trump
“mulling the specifics” before tweeting anything.
He’s more the kind of guy who tweets from the hip.
But is saying that Google is helping China’s military
just a wild accusation?
Some people don’t think so.
Like the highest-ranking military officer in the US.
“The work that Google is doing in China
is indirectly benefiting the Chinese military…”
“We watch with great concern
when industry partners work with China
knowing there is an indirect benefit,
frankly, indirect, may be not
a full categorization of the way it really is.
It's more of a direct benefit to the Chinese military.”
Google’s connections to the Chinese military
are not obvious.
It’s not like they did a blog post about it.
To be clear,
this is not a real Google blog post.
But the photo is real.
It was taken while Google’s CEO
was speaking at the very real
state-sponsored “Global Internet Conference”
held in Wuzhen, China in 2017.
Because nothing screams a free and open global internet,
like being sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party.
At the conference,
Google’s CEO told the audience that, quote
“A lot of work Google does is to help Chinese companies”.
And Google’s work with Chinese companies
is how Google—indirectly—
is helping China’s military.
Or to be more accurate,
China’s People’s Liberation Army,
which belongs directly to the Chinese Communist Party.
That same People’s Liberation Army
has threatened the United States,
and stolen untold amounts of US military secrets.
Looking into this, we found at least two ways
that Google has been indirectly supporting
the People’s Liberation Army—the PLA.
Here’s the first way.
Google has invested more than
half a billion dollars in JD.com,
which owns JD Logistics.
According to state-run media,
back in 2017,
the PLA Air Force signed a major agreement
to “cooperate with five Chinese non-military companies
[including JD Logistics] to upgrade
civil-military logistics integration.”
It looks like that partnership includes
using JD’s drones and logistics software
to deliver supplies for the air force.
Chinese “state-media hailed
the JD.com [PLA Air Force] partnership
as an ‘innovative specimen of civil-military fusion.’”
And last year JD logistics signed a similar agreement
with the PLA land forces.
And since Google owns half a billion dollars of JD.com,
which owns a majority share in JD Logistics,
it’s a bit like Google is partnering with the PLA.
Indirectly.
I know what you’re thinking.
Who cares about logistics and supply chains?
Besides every military in the world.
Anyway, I’m sure JD.com is happy to be
directly helping the PLA.
Its CEO, Liu Qiangdong,
is a celebrated Communist Party member.
And “civil-military fusion” is one of Xi Jinping’s
key national strategies right now.
It means private Chinese companies
are supposed to help the military.
Win-win cooperation.
For the military.
So Google is partnered with a Chinese company
that has strong links to the Communist Party,
and is helping the PLA with logistics.
Terrific.
Here’s the second way Google been
indirectly supporting China’s military:
Artificial Intelligence.
At the end of 2017, Google opened up
an Artificial Intelligence research lab in Beijing,
because “science has no borders.”
The Chinese military would agree,
because it doesn’t recognize borders
between civilian and military technology.
It’s that whole “civil-military” fusion thing again.
As former US Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said,
“Anything that’s going on in [Google’s AI center in China]
is going to be used by the military.”
And anyone who’s worked on AI programming knows,
it’s a highly collaborative process—
where a lot of people share data to train their bots.
So why would Google set up an AI Center in China?
Well, one reason might be that they have access
to huge amounts of data there,
and aren’t so restricted by America’s
or Europe’s pesky privacy laws.
Google is also hiring
a large number of local employees.
As of last August,
Google had 700 employees in China.
Now I don’t know for sure if Google
has a Communist Party branch,
but in theory,
“companies in China,
including foreign firms,
are required by law to establish a party organization.”
Plus Google has been encouraging
Chinese developers to use TensorFlow—
a Google software library useful for AI development.
As China researcher Matthew Robertson puts it,
“Aside from meeting Google’s own research needs,
[Google’s AI China Center] will without doubt
also help fertilize China’s own AI ambitions and talent.”
And China’s military is rushing to use
artificial intelligence—
so they’ll be needing that talent.
So while Google’s AI research in China
may not directly support China’s military,
the AI technology Google develops in China
will almost certainly be *used* by China’s military.
If Google doesn’t share technology
with the Chinese military directly,
its Chinese partners will.
I mean, how could Chinese tech companies say no?
Seriously, they’re not allowed to say no to the Party.
So there you have it:
Google is partnering with JD.com,
which partners with the PLA.
And Google is partnering with Chinese AI companies
to develop technology
that will be almost certainly used by the PLA.
We did reach out to Google for their response—
specifically about the AI Center in China
and their partnership with JD.com.
They didn’t reply about those things directly,
but they *did* send us this two-sentence
cookie-cutter statement attributable to
“a Google spokesperson.”
It says,
“We are not working with the Chinese military.
We are working with the U.S. government,
including the Department of Defense,
in many areas including cybersecurity,
recruiting and healthcare.”
No mention, though,
of how Google canceled Project Maven.
That was a partnership with the Department of Defense
that supplied imaging tools
used by American military drones.
Google stopped project Maven
because lots of employees protested it.
They didn’t want Google’s technology
to be used for weapons.
Not for American weapons at least.
So when Trump tweeted that
“Google is helping China and their military,
but not the U.S.
Terrible,”
he’s mostly right.
It is terrible.
Of course, Google is in a tough spot.
Even if it develops technology
entirely for private use,
the Chinese military can still buy it
or co-opt it for weapons.
But no one forced Google
to set up an office in Beijing,
or to partner with Chinese tech companies
that have ties to the Chinese military—
at a time when the Communist Party
is demanding “civil-military fusion.”
Now just to be clear,
Google is not the only US tech company
to have questionable dealings in China.
In fact, I could make a whole video out of that,
starting with Cisco,
which basically built China’s Great Firewall.
Let me know in the comments below
if you’d like to see that video.
But I think we’re all just
a little more disappointed in Google,
especially since it pulled out of China in 2010,
seemingly out of principle.
But I guess access to that sweet, sweet China market
is one of the benefits to removing
“Don’t be evil” from your motto.
So what do you think of Google’s
indirect support of the Chinese military?
Leave your comments below.
And before we go,
it’s time for me to answer a question
from a fan who supports China Uncensored
through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
BlueFox asks:
“Hey Chris, what's your zombie plan?”
That’s a good question,
given that my last episode was about
China’s zombie apocalypse.
Well, zombie *company* apocalypse.
Sort of different.
But if there were a real zombie attack,
I’d just head on over to
the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
It’s ranked one of 8 buildings around the world
to help you survive the apocalypse—
because it has “relatively few windows
and is made of concrete.”
It sure is ugly,
but it’ll do in a pinch.
I’ll just wait there for the zombies
to eat the rest of New York.
And when they’re in a serious food coma,
I’ll make my way to the survivor’s colony in Vermont.
It works in movies, right?
Thanks for your question, BlueFox.
And thank *you* to all of our supporters—
who contribute a dollar or more per episode
through our Patreon website.
We rely mainly on your support—
not advertising—
to keep China Uncensored going.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.