China: Report reveals Microsoft & Google incubator programmes backed surveillance startups, sparking human rights concerns
"Chinese startups supported by Microsoft and Google incubator programs worked with police", 19 November 2024
Silicon Valley tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, have supported tech companies that provide censorship and policing technologies in China, according to publicly available corporate and promotional materials reviewed by Rest of World.
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Over the last decade, China has become a global leader in using new technologies for surveillance and policing. In some cases, the technology enforces traffic rules and finds missing children. But authorities also use cutting-edge software to censor online speech, arrest bloggers and activists, and surveil ethnic minorities, most notably the Uyghur population in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Two Chinese companies were selling censorship software to support government regulations or working with the police before they joined Microsoftโs long-running program. AI startup Data Grand sold censorship software to internet companies before joining the incubator in 2017, while cybersecurity firm Tophant partnered with a police research institute back in 2021, before it was accepted into the program in 2023.
Two other startups partnered with Chinese police after they graduated from the U.S. tech giantโs program. In 2018, facial recognition firm DeepGlint worked closely with police in Xinjiang, where the government deployed surveillance tools to oppress ethnic minorities. In 2021, the U.S. sanctioned DeepGlint for its involvement in human rights violations in Xinjiang. Another company, Hydata, collaborated with a police lab in Xinjiang in charge of analyzing surveillance camera footage.
The incubator program, called โMicrosoft for Startups,โ has supported more than 800 companies since its launch in China in 2012, according to Microsoftโs website. The program provides office space, mentorship opportunities, access to Microsoft tools and cloud computing and connects firms with investors and clients.
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Microsoft said in an online post in August 2022 that the combined market valuation of their China alumni reached more than 400 billion yuan ($57 billion). While most Chinese participants work in sectors that donโt have surveillance applications, U.S.-China business ties are broadly being scrutinized by U.S. politicians, as the two largest economies engage in a tech innovation race.
Google, Nvidia, and Amazon Web Services โ Amazonโs cloud computing arm โ also run incubation programs in China. Rest of World found documentation, including press releases and media coverage, which showed that one startup supported by Google, LLVision, was providing smart glasses that helped police identify fugitives for several years before joining Googleโs incubator in 2022.
Microsoft did not respond to Rest of Worldโs requests for comment, and Google declined to comment.
The Chinese governmentโs use of surveillance tech, along with internment camps, in oppressing ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang came into a global spotlight starting around 2019, following a United Nations report about it in 2018. The U.S. government has since sanctioned several Chinese tech firms, including DeepGlint, accusing them of aiding the repression.
Itโs unlikely that Microsoft or Google were motivated to incubate Chinese tech to โsupercharge Chinaโs surveillance state,โ says Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University and a leading expert on Chinaโs technological capabilities.
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The Chinese stateโs demand for social stability has contributed to a booming market for surveillance cameras, facial recognition software, and systems used to monitor online speech. By working in security tech, companies access not only government procurement contracts but also the massive amount of data collected by the state, according to a peer-reviewed study by researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
โFor many of these companies, state contracts are the lifeblood,โ Bulelani Jili, a Meta Research Ph.D. fellow at Harvard University, who has researched Chinaโs cybersecurity industry, told Rest of World. Jili said the companies and their Western incubators likely did not expect that U.S.-China political tensions would ramp to such high levels.
Yu Zhou, a Vassar College professor of economic geography who has studied Chinaโs high-tech innovation, said many Chinese entrepreneurs viewed their work with the police as improving public safety, without anticipating the human rights concerns such collaborations would cause in the U.S.
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Data Grand, Tophant, DeepGlint, Hydata, and LLVision did not respond to requests for comment. Hydata hasnโt updated its online platforms in several years, and Rest of World could not confirm whether the company was still operational.
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This year, lawmakers grilled Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, asking him if the companyโs presence in China posed a national security threat. At the Homeland Security Committee hearing, Smith said that Microsoftโs China operations served the interests of the U.S., but it was reducing the size of its engineering teams in the country.
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The two startups that began providing policing services after they graduated from the Microsoft program continue to offer such services, while enjoying an extensive business network as incubator alumni.
Microsoft has showcased alumni companies at industrial exhibitions and organized networking events for them to meet potential business clients, according to event updates posted on Microsoftโs WeChat channel. The channel, which for years shared updates almost weekly, has not published any posts since June 17.
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In 2022, Google launched a similar startup accelerator program in China, providing business seminars and its cloud services to help Chinese companies expand internationally, according to its website. One participant, smart glasses maker LLVision, had been providing AR (augmented reality) glasses since at least 2018 for police use, before joining the Google program in 2022, according to founder Wu Feiโs interviews with Chinese media and the Wall Street Journal.
The company also makes glasses that can transcribe conversations for people with hearing loss, according to its online product introductions. As part of the accelerator program, Google helped the startup in developing and marketing these smart glasses for overseas consumers, according to a blog post from the founder published on Google Cloudโs website.
The glasses that LLVision had already developed for police featured cameras and facial recognition technology that enabled officers to identify fugitives from a database of suspects and share live footage with their colleagues, the company said on its website. International media widely reported on the glasses when police used them at a busy train station in Zhengzhou in 2018.
A Congressional committee on China in early 2024 accused U.S. venture capital funds of investing in Chinese tech companies that support Beijingโs military and its repression of minorities in Xinjiang. The U.S. government is enacting new rules in January to restrict U.S. entities from investing in sensitive AI, quantum computing, and semiconductor technologies in China, which would enhance the countryโs military and surveillance capabilities. Venture capital funds and tech companies are responding to the changing climate by spinning off China operations and reducing investments in the country.
Anti-China sentiment in Washington is so high that even if future restrictions on China investments are detrimental to the business of American companies, itโs unlikely that any of these companies will complain publicly, says Lewis, the former diplomat.
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