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I wanted to share a couple of quick thoughts on this story, because I also have raised concerns in the past about the research and partnerships of Google, among other companies, in China and with Chinese counterparts. reuters.com/article/us-usa…
To start, based on my research to date (which, I'll caveat, draws entirely on open sources, so I don't know what I don't know), I have not seen explicit evidence that Google's activities in China are directly benefiting Chinese military developments to date.
Clearly, Google sees benefits to operating in China, e.g., access to talent and potentially a sizable market. I think decisions of this nature ought to be left to companies' discretion, yet public debate on potential ramifications of such choices will be warranted in some cases.
As such, I'll note a couple of factors that may be relevant to consider. During the summer of 2018, Google appeared to be exploring closer partnership with Tsinghua University, including during the Tsinghua-Google AI Symposium that was convened in Beijing.
At the time, Google’s AI Chief Jeff Dean, who has also joined Tsinghua’s Advisory Committee on Computer Science, highlighted his plans to promote exchanges and cooperation between Google and China. medium.com/syncedreview/t…
At the time, I thought the extent of Tsinghua's commitment to a national strategy for military-civil fusion should be noted as a salient consideration. (I'm not aware of the potential relationship between Google and Tsinghua having developed further since then.)
I'd posted this unofficial translation of a speech by Tsinghua vice president You Zheng because I think this provides a useful illustration of the university's institutional involvement in military-civil fusion. battlefieldsingularity.com/musings-1/tsin…
In his remarks, he mentioned work that Tsinghua is undertaking on behalf of China's Central Military Commission, particularly a project that the team of academician Zhang Bo was pursuing on future human-machine cooperative (combat) operations.
I'll note that Zhang Bo is also the head of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence that Tsinghua had announced it was establishing during the symposium with Google. gbtimes.com/tsinghua-unive…
I'll note that Tsinghua also announced this January that it is establishing a new "open and free platform for knowledge computing" under its Institute for Artificial Intelligence. gbtimes.com/ai-research-pl…
Tsinghua vice president You Zheng has consistently emphasized Tsinghua University "will closely integrate the national strategy of military-civilian integration and the AI superpower strategy," including constructing a laboratory delegated to military artificial intelligence. 
It's worth noting that many international educational institutions, including recently a number of French universities, have established partnerships with Tsinghua in science and technology, including in artificial intelligence. chinadaily.com.cn/a/201801/11/WS…
Arguably, this focus on international cooperation is all consistent with the emphasis of China's AI plan of pursuing international collaborations as a means of leveraging those global 'innovation resources' to advance indigenous developments.
With regard to Google in China again, the primary partnership that Google has established so far in artificial intelligence is with Fudan University. fudan.edu.cn/en/articles/vi…
In June 2018, just a few weeks after the signing of that two-year partnership, Fudan University established the Science and Technology Research Institute, which incorporated the functions of the university's former Military Projects R&D Office. webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache…
This Fudan S&T Research Institute includes the Military-Civil Fusion Research Office, and there was also a Military Project Confidentiality Office (军工保密办公室) opened at that time.
As a further example of its engagement with this agenda of military-civil fusion, Fudan University academics from its computer science program also participated in this forum on military-civil fusion in big data and the Internet of Things in 2017. webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache…
In January 2019, Fudan University's president, Xu Ningsheng, had a meeting with Wu Yansheng, the party secretary and chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, during which they discussed military-civil fusion in aerospace development. webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache…
I'd note that there's been a lot of interest in China's defense industry in applying big data, artificial intelligence, and intelligent manufacturing to aerospace, so a deepening partnership with CASC could include a focus on such innovations.
So, I do think it's clear that many of China's leading universities are actively supporting the Chinese military and defense industry. Of course, such partnerships and engagements are not unique to China, but do appear to be deepening.
When Google (or any American company or university) chooses to engage with a Chinese counterpart, I hope that this this increased blurring of boundaries between academic and military-oriented research in China, particularly in artificial intelligence, will be a consideration.
At the same time, I deeply believe that the openness of the American innovation ecosystem is among our greatest competitive advantages, and global partnerships in research, including, in some cases, with Chinese counterparts, can be a core element of that.
So personally, I wouldn't advocate that such academic collaborations be curtailed, and I think that the balancing of risk and benefit ideally ought to occur on a case-by-case basis.
In some cases, such as when members of the Chinese military are directly involved in sensitive research, as in the incidents that @alexjoske's great report with @ASPI_ICPC documented, the potential for risk and harm is much more direct and self-evident. aspi.org.au/report/picking…
The considerations in play for Google's partnerships and research engagement in China are not as clearcut, at least in what I've seen so far, raising tricky questions of whether Google, as an American, but also global, company ought to take strategy and geopolitics into account.
