Google denies ties to Chinese military after investor lobs ‘treason’ accusation

Economic Council director says he’s not sure where PayPal co-founder got his information

Google is pushing back against Peter Thiel’s insinuation that the company is doing business with China’s military after President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that his administration will “take a look.”

Thiel, the tech industry’s most high-profile Trump supporter, questioned Google’s loyalty to the United States during a speech Sunday at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. He reportedly said he thought the CIA and the FBI should investigate Google’s ties to China after the company’s reported plans to operate a search engine there again, plus Google letting lapse an artificial-intelligence contract with the Pentagon after its employees raised ethical concerns. He offered no evidence about what he said were “questions that should be asked” of Google, according to news reports.

“As we have said before, we do not work with the Chinese military,” a Google spokeswoman said Tuesday. “We are working with the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense, in many areas including cybersecurity, recruiting and healthcare.”

Trump’s statement that his administration would look into Thiel’s claims came after his National Economic Council director, Larry Kudlow, said on television that he didn’t understand where Thiel, a billionaire investor who sits on the board of main Google rival Facebook, was coming from.

“I have not spoken with Peter Thiel about this,” Kudlow said on Fox Business Network on Monday. “Not sure where he’s going, what he’s pointing to. I meet with the Google CEO on a regular basis, I think they’re working for our country, not China.” He added that “it’s very fashionable to pick on big tech companies” and that he’d have to hear what Thiel has to say about it.

But Kudlow’s boss tweeted this morning about Thiel: “A great and brilliant guy who knows this subject better than anyone!”

A spokesman for Thiel has not returned a request for comment.