PayPal founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel discusses his support for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Oct. 31, 2016
Technology billionaire investor Peter Thiel criticized major U.S. technology companies for being too close to the Chinese Communist Party and called on them to dissolve their ties with the Communist Party.
Speaking at a web roundtable hosted by the Richard Nixon Foundation, Thiel said, “Because everything in China is civil-military integration, Google is actually working with the Chinese military, not the U.S. military.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien also attended the event.
Thiel is a co-founder of PayPal and a member of Facebook’s board of directors.
He was referring to Google’s decision in 2018 not to renew its contract with the Pentagon. The contract was to provide the U.S. military with artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyze drone video footage in a program called Project Maven. Google said it was not continuing the military project because it did not support “the use of AI in weaponized systems.”
But also in 2018, Google decided to partner with China’s Tsinghua University to set up a new AI research institute.
Tsinghua University is also mentioned in the Pentagon’s 2020 report on the military power of the Chinese Communist Party. This is because it has laboratories affiliated with the CCP’s military and is linked to the CCP’s civil-military integration strategy. The strategy allows the communist regime to use commercial technology to further its military development.
The U.S. State Department warns on its official website that the CCP’s strategy involves stealing intellectual property in order to “gain a military advantage.”
In addition, Tsinghua University is one of more than sixty universities overseen by the Communist Party’s General Administration of Defense Science, Technology and Industry.
Turning a blind eye
Thiel also said he spoke with Google insiders and learned that the Internet search giant decided to work with the Chinese Communist Party because “they felt it was better to open the door and give out the technology because even if they didn’t give it out themselves, the technology would be stolen by the Chinese Communist Party anyway.”
In another conversation with some “Google people,” Thiel said he asked whether Google’s artificial intelligence technology was being used by the Communist government to manage concentration camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang.
Thiel recalled being told, “We don’t know, and we’re not going to ask any questions.”
Commenting on Google and other technology companies , which have chosen to remain silent on issues related to the Chinese Communist Party, Thiel said, “It’s wishful thinking. This is the ‘useful idiots,’ this is the ‘Fifth Column’ (meaning: traitors or traitors who infiltrate important departments to work for the enemy) who are defectors to the enemy. “
He added, “If you think about this in terms of ideology or human rights, etc., I can’t help but say that this is totally racist.” It’s like saying, because they look different, they’re not white, they don’t have the same rights.”
The Chinese Communist Party is committing genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang, forcing them to undergo sterilization, forced abortions, torture, forced labor, and the removal of children from their families. The Communist government has captured more than 1 million Uighurs and held them in detention camps – facilities touted by the Communist Party as vocational training centers.
Despite our leadership in the basic science of artificial intelligence, the CCP is using this technology to turn an entire society into a state that uses face recognition for surveillance,” he said. This surveillance is even more intrusive and totalitarian than it was in Stalinist-era Russia. It’s not something we’re willing to do.”
Thiel said it would be difficult for Facebook, the social media giant, to take a tough stance against the Chinese Communist Party because of its large employee base, many of whom are Chinese citizens. For example, Thiel referred to the debate among internal employees about the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Thiel said, “Employees from Hong Kong are supportive of protest and free speech, but Facebook has more employees who were born in mainland China.”
“The Chinese (mainland) people are effectively saying that it’s just Western arrogance and they shouldn’t side with Hong Kong, and then the rest of Facebook’s employees stay out of it.”
He concluded, “But the internal arguments give the impression as if people are actually more against Hong Kong than for it.”
Pointing them out
Using Facebook as an example, Thiel said some U.S. tech companies have had a hard time taking a strong stance against the Communist Party because of how they position themselves.
He explained, “There’s been an awakening of political activity within these companies that they don’t really consider themselves to be an American company.”
Thiel suggested that in order to stop the Chinese Communist Party from infiltrating the U.S. technology industry, there needs to be “some continued pressure on Silicon Valley. He added, “You need to keep calling attention to this issue.”
He said, “We need to point out that companies like Google are working with communist China on artificial intelligence, not with the U.S. military.” “I think we should also put a lot of pressure on Apple because Apple’s entire labor supply chain is in China, where the iPhone is made.”
He concluded, “Apple is a company that has real synergies with the Chinese Communist Party.”
The U.S. smartphone giant has made a number of controversial decisions related to the CCP in recent years, including the transfer of some iCloud data to CCP servers, the withdrawal of the Hong Kong mapping app HKmap.live from its App Store, and the appointment of Apple CEO Tim Cook as dean of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management.
The HKmap.live mapping app was popular among Hong Kong protesters who were able to use it to avoid direct confrontation with the Hong Kong police. Hong Kong police have been heavily criticized for their violent treatment of protesters.
Google, Facebook and Apple did not immediately respond to reporters’ requests for comment.
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