China unwittingly used as White House goes after Google

The US administration announced on Tuesday it will investigate whether Google works with China. Given the administration’s increasing dislike of the US tech giant, it no doubt seems a good way to kill two birds with one stone: put pressure on China ahead of the forthcoming trade talks while also pressing Google to be more malleable.

Like before, there is no proof to support the allegation against China, the US leader has simply repeated the claim by Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and venture capitalist, that Google may be infiltrated by Chinese intelligence.

The infiltration charges against China are baseless. But Thiel is seeking to leverage the annoyance of the US Department of Defense and hawks in the administration that Google has withdrawn from some US defense projects after a backlash from its employees.

Google was targeted with similar accusations in March, when General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed such unfounded concerns about Google in a congressional hearing.

Google has repeatedly denied any relations with the Chinese government or the Chinese military.

In response to the latest charges, Riva Sciuto, a spokeswoman for Google, said: “As we have said before, we do not work with the Chinese military. We are working with the US government, including the Department of Defense, in many areas including cybersecurity, recruiting and healthcare.”

It is irresponsible of the US leader to buy into Thiel’s allegations and cast aspersions on China. Google has little business in China. But, to some extent, Thiel has just given him the excuse he needs to cow Google ahead of the election campaign that is looming ever closer.

The White House has growing concerns about Google’s influence over internet searches and online advertising. It is reportedly mulling a crackdown on Google for supposedly disadvantaging conservatives in search results.

But as shown by the recent controversial tweets against four congresswomen by the White House, it is not going to let the truth and social niceties get in the way of its attack on Google. As such, China has become a victim of US domestic politics, as it has been put in the cross-fire between the White House and the internet giant.

The baseless charges against China do a disservice to the efforts of those working hard to hammer out the details of a trade deal.