August 1, 2023
US technology giants Meta and Google are hiring engineers and developers in mainland China for virtual reality, cloud, mobile and smart home products, despite Western government fears that the Chinese Communist Party’s harsh intelligence laws can force companies to hand over information.
Meta is recruiting in Shanghai for seven roles in hardware and design for its virtual and augmented reality products.
Google is searching for 20 new employees in Shanghai, including senior software engineers for Google Nest, its smart-home product, a senior technical program manager for Google Wallet and various engineering roles across its Pixel mobile phone.
Western intelligence officials fear a range of laws passed in China since 2015 exert creeping government control over businesses and the population.
China’s national intelligence law of 2017, for example, requires all organisations and citizens to “support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work”.
“Organisation” is a broad term interpreted as all Chinese companies, global subsidiaries of Chinese companies and Chinese subsidiaries of global companies. The laws’ reach, however, cannot effectively extend to parent companies outside the country.
The law “may force locally employed [People’s Republic of China] nationals of US companies to assist the PRC national intelligence efforts”, according to the US government’s National Counterintelligence and Security Centre.
Meta, owner of Facebook, and Google products are largely unavailable in China, having been geo-blocked by authorities as part of their “firewall” censorship of foreign social media and search functions.
TikTok, another social media giant, has sought to distance itself from its parent company, Chinese-owned ByteDance, as it comes under pressure from national security officials around the world.
It has moved key executives roles to Singapore and the United States in response, although TikTok admitted in questions on notice from the Australian Senate committee on foreign interference through social media that most of its 5000 engineers are based in China and the US.
Meta previously hired a Washington lobbyist to plant stories that “TikTok is the real threat, especially as a foreign-owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using”, according to emails seen in a Washington Post investigation.
Meta and Google both declined to comment.
Sources with knowledge of Google’s operations claimed its presence in China was limited to helping local businesses such as app developers to reach audiences outside China. The source also pointed out that Google did not conduct artificial intelligence research in China.
However, federal opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said foreign companies should be wary about building their presence in China.
“Western-headquartered tech companies should exercise extreme caution hiring in [China], and any access those employees have to sensitive data or R&D given China’s national security laws will apply to those personnel,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“Article 7 of the 2017 national intelligence law requires all Chinese citizens to assist the work of China’s intelligence agencies and to keep that co-operation secret. They would have no choice but to comply. Therefore, any sensitive data they are able to access or valuable R&D they create cannot be considered safe or secure.”
Robert Potter, co-chief executive of Canberra-based cybersecurity and intelligence firm Internet 2.0, said many companies were trying to reduce their reliance on China in their supply chains, despite an attempt by Beijing to soften its stance on inward investment by foreign multinationals and other non-Chinese businesses.
He said it did not make sense for Meta and Google to be hiring in China because they mostly do not sell products there. Android, Google’s mobile operating system, is, however, widely used.
“If they’re in Shanghai, you basically can’t vet them. You’re in a position where anyone can be forced to follow the national security legislation,” he said.
