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BEIJING — In July, bil-

lionaire investor and entre-

preneur Peter Thiel called

for an FBI and CIA investi-

gation of Google, saying the

company was “treasonous”

for allegedly working with

the Chinese military instead

of the U.S. military.

Thiel’s accusations were

rejected by Treasury Secre-

tary Steven T. Mnuchin, who

said he and President

Trump had met with Google

CEO Sundar Pichai at the

White House and found no

evidence of Google working

with the Chinese govern-

ment or military.

Thiel has been criticized

for trying to stoke U.S.-

China trade war tensions for

his own business advantage.

But his comments were also

indicative of a changing

landscape in U.S.-China

tech collaboration, as grow-

ing distrust between the two

superpowers causes Ameri-

can companies and institu-

tions to reconsider what

safeguards should be in

place to ensure that working

with Chinese partners does

not impinge on national se-

curity or human rights.

Several U.S. lawmakers

—both Democrats and Re-

publicans — recently called

for an examination of U.S.

funding that enables Chi-

nese government surveil-

lance of Muslim minorities

in Xinjiang province.

Scientistshave been criti-

cized for knowingly or un-

knowingly using Chinese

data sets that draw on bio-

metric data forcefully col-

lected from minorities.

On the national security

front, researcherswho help

China with applications for

artificial intelligence have

been accused of enabling

Chinese military advance-

ment. Thiel, whose company

Palantir works extensively

with the Department of De-

fense, says the “patriotic”

thing to do is for tech to serve

U.S. military interests.

But many experts and

academics disagree. They

say the risks of Chinese tech

collaboration are serious,

but that ethical questions

are better centered on

standards of transparency

and consent than on notions

of loyalty and patriotism.

The most critical difference

between the U.S. and Chi-

nese systems, they say, is

that American companies

and individuals have the

freedom to choose whether

they want to work with the

government.

Framing tech in terms of

“patriotism” is problematic,

they say, because it suggests

that companies or individu-

als exercising that freedom

to reject U.S. military part-

nership are somehow un-

ethical, when in fact they are

demonstrating a strength of

the American system.

“It is important for indi-

viduals to have recourse

against what government

asks us to do. That’s the

most American thing I can

think of,” said Kara Freder-

ick, an analyst at the Wash-

ington, D.C.-based think

tank Center for a New

American Security who pre-

viously worked on a global

security team at Facebook.

Democracy on its own is

not a sufficient safeguard

against privacy violations

and misuse of data, as

shown by the scandal involv-

ing data-mining firm Cam-

bridge Analytica, which se-

cretly harvested informa-

tion acquired from Face-

book and used it to influence

the 2016 U.S. presidential

race. But at least the rule of

law and protection of free-

doms of speech can provide

opportunity for debate and

accountability, according to

analysts.

Whether ethical stand-

ards can hold in U.S.-China

tech collaboration is even

less certain because of Chi-

na’s authoritarian political

structure.

Palantir co-founder Joe

Lonsdale has referred to

these differences as a clash

of “two very different cul-

tures.” When Google sup-

ports AI research with Chi-

nese universities, it essen-

tially serves the Chinese gov-

ernment, he said in a CNBC

interview, because “every-

thing in China is the govern-

ment.”

“If you work in China, you

do work with the govern-

ment,” Lonsdale said.

“That’s how China works.”

Frederick agreed that

tech companies should reex-

amine their Chinese re-

search partnerships. Ac-

cording to a National Intelli-

gence Law passed in 2017, the

Chinese government can

command any individual or

organization to hand over

information and technology

in the name of national secu-

rity.

“You can’t just make

something and naively be-

lieve that when you put it out

into the world, people are al-

ways good and going to use it

for good things,” Frederick

said.

But it’s also oversimplifi-

cation to conflate Chinese

people and institutions with

the Chinese government, or

to label all collaboration as

treasonous support for the

Chinese military, said Elsa

Kania, a technology and se-

curity analyst at the Center

for a New American Securi-

ty.

“The fact that Google is

working on AI in China

doesn’t mean they’re sup-

porting the Chinese military

directly,” Kania said, adding

that even many Chinese

companies are not “excited

to work with the military.”

“If you’re a company

fiercely competing for com-

mercial advantage, working

with the [People’s Libera-

tion Army] is not your best

interest,” she said.

Chinese tech employees

told The Times they rarely

question ethical implica-

tions of their work, but also

that politics played a min-

imal role in their career deci-

sions.

“It’s not like in the U.S.,

where people try to stay

away from the government.

Here, association with the

government is somehow

more honorable,” said

Cathy, 26, an employee of a

major tech company in Bei-

jing who spoke on the condi-

tion of withholding her full

name to avoid any repercus-

sions from her employer.

Friends working for

Huawei had thought of leav-

ing because of the unhealthy

overwork culture, she said,

but changed their minds

once Huawei executive

Meng Wanzhou was de-

tained in Canada at the U.S.

government’s request.

“In a moment like that,

they feel like what they’re

doing is to some extent more

worthwhile. You’re fighting

for a bigger cause because

you’re not only standing for

the company but also for

your country as a whole,” she

said.

At the same time, Cathy

said her career decisions

were driven mostly by her

goals for personal advance-

ment. “I wouldn’t work for a

company just because it gets

bullied abroad,” she said.

James, 27, an employee in

amicrochip assembly fac-

tory in Shenzhen who also

asked that his full name be

withheld, said many young

Chinese are struggling just

to find employment.

“What I care about day to

day is whether the traffic is

good, whether I have work,

whether the city will be a bit

more convenient,” he said.

“You talk about politics for

half an hour, what do you get

from it? Everything is status

quo.”

Most young Chinese tech

workers don’t have the luxu-

ry of thinking about the eth-

ics of who they work for,

James said. It’s enough of an

economic challenge for peo-

ple to move to the big cities

where major tech compa-

nies are located.

“If I could work in one of

those big tech companies, I

would be absolutely

thrilled,” he said. “I would go

to whichever company I can

get into.”

In the U.S., thousands of

employees of major compa-

nies have protested, some

even resigning on ethical

grounds — most pertinently

at Google, where employees

protested Project Dragonfly,

the company’s plan to create

a censored search engine for

China, and Project Maven, a

partnership with the De-

partment of Defense in AI

that could be used for drone

strikes.

Jack Poulson, an ex-

Google researcher who re-

signed over Project Drag-

onfly and now runs a non-

profit promoting tech indus-

try accountability, said that

tech workers and academics

should demand full trans-

parency on the human

rights implications of any

project they’re tasked with.

“I don’t think it’s fair that

just because you’re a tech

company, you contribute to

loss of life,” Poulson said. “As

a civilian, you have the right

not to contribute to any

weapons system or any de-

privation of rights or safety.”

Thiel’s statement was

framed as a warning about

China but implied that tech

workers should instead

serve the U.S. military, Poul-

son said.

But tech ethics is not

about tying tech to one or

another country’s

unchecked military inter-

ests, Frederick said.

“It’s not just a hard guns

and drones and offensive sit-

uation. It’s a battle for how

this tech is used, to help or

hurt people,” she said.

“We’re not going to use virtu-

al scanning for specific mi-

norities and religious

groups. We need to say that.”

Huang Yasheng, an MIT

professor who heads the

business school’s China Lab,

said that civil-military fu-

sion should be “taken as a

given” in China and treated

with appropriate safe-

guards, but should not stop

engagement.

“The way to advance AI is

to make data bigger, which

requires collaboration and

sharing,” Huang said, add-

ing that involving Chinese

scientists in discussions

about ethics is a positive

strategy.

“Maybe in the end, we de-

cide to split. It’s like a di-

vorce,” Huang said. “Do you

go to divorce after a few in-

stances of conflict, or to

some intermediate step

first?

“If the two countries split,

that’s not a tech future that

is good for humanity, be-

cause that would enable

China to do even worse than

they’re doing now. We

should collaborate as a way

to passively influence their

behavior.”

BACK STORY

A question of ‘patriotism’?

U.S.-China tech collaboration draws a line in sand amid trade tensions

By Alice Su

PETER THIEL, a billionaire investor and entrepreneur, accused Google last month of being “treasonous” for

allegedly working with the Chinese military and called for the FBI and CIA to investigate the company.

Getty Images

GOOGLE’Swork on artificial intelligence in China has drawn criticism in some

circles. Above, visitors gather at a Google booth during a 2016 Beijing conference.

Andy WongAssociated Press