On Thursday,
Vice President Mike Pence called for Google to end its development of a search
engine custom built to accommodate China’s disposition for censorship.
Pence gave
the speech at a conservative think tank in D.C., dipping into a range of
anti-Beijing sentiments, from intellectual property concerns to tariffs and the
trade war. Pence didn’t mince words, calling on Google to abandon its plans for
a China-friendly mobile version of its otherwise ubiquitous search engine.
Pence
accused any company with plans to work around Chinese internet restrictions of
“abetting Beijing’s oppression” and didn’t hesitate to call the search giant
out by name:
More business leaders are thinking beyond the
next quarter, and thinking twice before diving into the Chinese market if it
means turning over their intellectual property or abetting Beijing’s
oppression. But more must follow suit. For example, Google should immediately
end development of the “Dragonfly” app that will strengthen Communist Party
censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers…
More journalists are reporting the truth
without fear or favor, and digging deep to find where China is interfering in
our society, and why – and we hope that more American, and global, news
organizations will join in this effort.
More scholars are speaking out forcefully and
defending academic freedom, and more universities and think tanks are mustering
the courage to turn away Beijing’s easy money, recognizing that every dollar
comes with a corresponding demand. We’re confident that more will join their
ranks.
And across the nation, the American people
are growing in vigilance, with a newfound appreciation for our administration’s
actions to re-set America’s economic and strategic relationship with China, to
finally put America First.
Pence’s full
remarks are available on the Hudson Institute’s website.
Google’s
covert project, known as Dragonfly, is reportedly a version of the search
engine that blocks forbidden sites like Facebook and Twitter, censors search
terms like the Tiananmen Square massacre and cuts out prominent Western news
sources like the BBC and The New York Times. The project, first reported by the
Intercept, sparked internal turmoil at the company and a letter of protest from
employees who felt too in the dark to make “ethically-informed decisions about
our work, our projects, and our employment.”
Google drama
aside, Pence’s tough talk on China might be politically expedient bluster, but
it’s not without irony: The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed its
outright contempt for a free press, a hallmark of an aggressively restrictive
government like China. Pence’s derision of China’s “unparalleled surveillance
state” is also fairly rich, given domestic policy on warrantless surveillance
The vice
president also took the opportunity to refresh controversial claims that China
is “meddling” in the U.S. midterm elections, echoing language often used to
describe Russia’s substantiated election interference efforts. President Trump
suggested as much last week, claiming that China “has been attempting to
interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November, against my
administration.” Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen
declined to endorse the president’s unsubstantiated claims, noting that China
pursues a “holistic approach” to cultivating a positive image in the U.S.
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