TTP Investigation: Google’s Flights Show Decade-Long Pursuit of China

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 22, 2020

Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a nonprofit watchdog group that runs the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), released a report detailing how Google flight patterns show a decade long pursuit of expanding its business operations across Greater China, despite its public withdrawal from the country in 2010 over censorship concerns. TTP found that planes owned by Google and its top executives have made at least 26 trips to or from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau since 2010. Most recently, FAA data shows that Google planes made at least three roundtrip flights to Greater China in 2019. One of them came just days before news reports that Google had suspended much of its business with Huawei, following the Trump administration’s decision to include the Chinese company on a trade blacklist, a move that restricted Huawei from using licensed versions of the Android operating system for its smartphones.

Read the full report here.

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.