GOOGLE EMPLOYEES UNCOVER ONGOING WORK ON CENSORED CHINASEARCH

GOOGLE EMPLOYEES UNCOVER ONGOING WORK ON CENSORED CHINASEARCH

March 4 2019

 Lee Kai Fu, former president of Google in China, is moving on with his new company Innovation Works.

GOOGLE EMPLOYEES HAVE carried out their own investigation into the company’s plan to launch a censored search engine for China and say they are concerned that development of the project remains ongoing, The Intercept can reveal.

Late last year, bosses moved engineers away from working on the controversial project, known as Dragonfly, and said that there were no current plans to launch it. However, a group of employees at the company was unsatisfied with the lack of information from leadership on the issue — and took matters into their own hands.
The group has identified ongoing work on a batch of code that is associated with the China search engine, according to three Google sources. The development has stoked anger inside Google offices, where many of the company’s 88,000 workforce previously protested against plans to launch the search engine, which was designed to censor broad categories of information associated with human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest.

Read Our Complete CoverageGoogle Dragonfly

In December, The Intercept reported that an internal dispute and political pressure on Google had stopped development of Dragonfly. Google bosses had originally planned to launch it between January and April of this year. But they changed course after the outcry over the plan and indicated to employees who were working on the project that it was being shelved.

Google’s Caesar Sengupta, an executive with a leadership role on Dragonfly, told engineers and others who were working on the censored search engine in mid-December that they would be allocated new projects funded by different “cost centers” of the company’s budget. In a message marked “confidential – do not forward,” which has been newly obtained by The Intercept, Sengupta told the
Dragonfly workers:

Over the past few quarters, we have tackled different aspects of what search would look like in China. While we’ve made progress in our understanding of the market and user needs, many unknowns remain and currently we have no plans to launch.

Back in July we said at our all hands that we did not feel we could make much progress right now. Since then, many people have effectively rolled off the project while others have been working on adjacent areas such as improving our Chinese language capabilities that also benefit users globally. Thank you for all of your hard work here.

As we finalize business planning for 2019, our priority is for you to be productive and have clear objectives, so we have started to align cost centers to better reflect what people are actually working on.

Thanks again — and your leads will follow up with you on next steps.

Sources with knowledge of Dragonfly said staff who were working on the project were not told to immediately cease their efforts. Rather, they were instructed to finish up the jobs they were doing and then they would be allocated new work on other teams. Some of those who were working on Dragonfly were moved into different areas, focusing on projects related to Google’s search services in India, Indonesia, Russia, the Middle East, and Brazil. 

“I just don’t know where the leadership is coming from anymore.”

But Google executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai, refused both publicly and privately to completely rule out launching the censored search engine in the future. This led a group of concerned employees — who were themselves not directly involved with Dragonfly — to closely monitor the company’s internal systems for information about the project and circulate their findings on an internal messaging list.

The employees have been keeping tabs on repositories of code that are stored on Google’s computers, which they say is linked to Dragonfly. The code was created for two smartphone search apps — named Maotai and Longfei — that Google planned to roll out in China for users of Android and iOS mobile devices.

The employees identified about 500 changes to the code in December, and more than 400 changes to the code between January and February of this year, which they believe indicates continued development of aspects of Dragonfly. (Since August 2017, the number of code changes has varied between about 150 to 500 each month, one source said.) The employees say there are still some 100 workers allocated to the “cost center” associated with Dragonfly, meaning that the company is maintaining a budget for potential ongoing work on the plan.

Google sources with knowledge of Dragonfly said that the code changes could possibly be attributed to employees who have continued this year to wrap up aspects of the work they were doing to develop the Chinese search platform.

“I still believe the project is dead, but we’re still waiting for a declaration from Google that censorship is unacceptable and that they will not collaborate with governments in the oppression of their people,” said one source familiar with Dragonfly.

The lack of clarity from management has resulted in Google losing skilled engineers and developers. In recent months, several Google employees have resigned in part due to Dragonfly and leadership’s handling of the project. The Intercept knows of six staff at the company, including two in senior positions, who have quit since December, and three others who are planning to follow them out the door.

Colin McMillen, who worked as a software engineer at Google for nine years, quit the company in early February. He told The Intercept that he had been concerned about Dragonfly and other “ethically dubious” decisions, such as Google’s multimillion-dollar severance packages for executives accused of sexual harassment.

Sergey Brin, president of Alphabet and co-founder of Google, joins protestors at San Francisco International Airport.

“I think they are going to try it again in a year or two.”

Prior to leaving the company, McMillen said he and his colleagues had “strong indications that something is still happening” with Google search in China. But they were left confused about the status of the China plan because upper management would not discuss it.

“I just don’t know where the leadership is coming from anymore,” he said. “They have really closed down communication and become significantly less transparent.”

In 2006, Google launched a censored search engine in China, but stopped operating the service in the country in 2010, taking a clear anti-censorship position. At the time, Google co-founder Sergey Brin declared that he wanted to show that the company was “opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent.”

Pichai, Google’s CEO since 2015, has taken a different position. He has a strong desire to launch search again in China — viewing the censorship as a worthwhile trade-off to gain access to the country’s more than 800 million internet users — and he may now be waiting for the controversy around Dragonfly to die down before quietly resurrecting the plan.

“Right now it feels unlaunchable, but I don’t think they are canceling outright,” McMillen said. “I think they are putting it on the back burner and are going to try it again in a year or two with a different code name or approach.”

Anna Bacciarelli, a technology researcher at Amnesty International, called on Google “to publicly confirm that it has dropped Dragonfly for good, not just ‘for now.’” Bacciarelli told The Intercept that Amnesty’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo had visited Google’s Mountain View headquarters in California last week to reiterate concerns over Dragonfly and “the apparent disregard for transparency and accountability around the project. 

If Google is still developing the censored search engine, Bacciarelli said, “it’s not only failing on its human rights responsibilities but ignoring the hundreds of Google employees, more than 70 human rights organizations, and hundreds of thousands of campaign supporters around the world who have all called on the company to respect human rights and drop Dragonfly.”

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Liberal candidate invited head of suspected secret Chinese police station to campaign event

Montreal-area Liberal candidate hosted the head of two organizations suspected by the RCMP of operating a secret Chinese police station this week

Author of the article:

 Apr 18, 2025

Xixi Li, a city councillor in Brossard, Que., and the head of an organization suspected by the RCMP of hosting a secret Chinese police station, attends an invitation-only campaign event hosted by local Liberal candidate and outgoing MP Alexandra Mendès. Photo by Submitted

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MONTREAL — A Montreal-area Liberal candidate invited to a campaign event this week the head of two organizations suspected by the RCMP of operating a secret Chinese police station.

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The invitation by Alexandra Mendès, the Liberal incumbent running for re-election in Brossard—Saint-Lambert, sowed consternation within the Liberal party, which has faced scrutiny over multiple candidates’ comments about or apparent links to the Chinese government.

In a picture provided to National Post, Xixi Li, the head of two controversial Chinese community organizations and a Brossard city councillor, is seen attending an invitation-only dinner hosted by Mendès Tuesday evening.

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“I’m pleased to invite you to a rallying spaghetti dinner for the 2025 federal election campaign,” reads a copy of the “invitation from Alexandra Mendès” sent to event attendees and obtained by National Post.

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Li is the executive director of Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal (SFCGM) and the Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud (CSQRS). In 2023, the RCMP announced that it was investigating suspicions that the organizations secretly housed a Chinese “police station” that may be supporting efforts to intimidate or silence critics of China’s ruling communist regime.

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At the time, the RCMP said the investigation was part of a larger probe aiming to “detect and perturb criminal activities supported by a foreign state that can threaten the safety of people living in Canada.” One month later, it said it had “shut down illegal police activity in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.”

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No charges have been laid against Li or the organizations she heads.

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MP Alexandra Mendès delivers a speech in the House of Commons prior to voting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. 

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SFCGM and CSQRS leadership as well as Li have vehemently denied the RCMP’s allegations and filed a $4.9-million defamation lawsuit against the national police force in 2024.

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“These allegations only serve to stigmatize and reinforce stereotypes and prejudices against a historically marginalized group,” SFCGM leadership said in a January statement detailing the impacts of the investigation on the organization.

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Earlier this month, the RCMP requested that the lawsuit be put on pause for a third time until it completes its investigation by January.

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“Since the investigation is still ongoing and there are legal steps to be taken, we cannot offer any comments at this time,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Erique Gasse said in response to the National Post’s request for comment.

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Li’s attendance at Mendès’ event was first reported by Le Journal de Montréal. National Post obtained photos and confirmation of Li’s attendance at the event independently.

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“I was invited in my role as a citizen of Brossard and a sitting city councillor,” Li wrote in an email to National Post.

English language version of the invitation that was one sent out to all event guests. 

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Two Liberal sources said there was much discomfort and consternation within the party after learning that Mendès had once again invited Li to an event she organized. The sources were granted anonymity to speak freely of internal party affairs.

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Questions for Mendès’ campaign were redirected to the Liberals’ national campaign team, who noted that Li’s invitation was at the behest of the Mendès campaign.

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“The individual you mention attended a local community event hosted and organized by the local candidate. There was no donation taken from this individual,” wrote Liberal spokesperson Guillaume Bertrand, adding that the party has “no formal ties” with the SFCGM.

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His statement did not say if the party supported Mendès’ decision to invite Li.

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The links between SFCGM and the Chinese government go back years and the organization likely received funding directly from Beijing, according to a 2023 report by the Toronto Star.

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The newspaper cited Chinese media reports in 2016 that the SFCGM was designated as an Overseas Chinese Service Centre by China’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO), which became part of China’s controversial United Front Work Department in 2018. That designation generally comes with funding from the Chinese government.

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In 2017, Chinese media published pictures of Li with directors of OCAO, which experts say was an integral part of China’s “united front system” that has been accused of stifling critics of the Chinese regime abroad.

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The Canadian government has warned for years that Beijing uses the United Front Work Department “to stifle criticism, infiltrate foreign political parties, diaspora communities, universities and multinational corporations.”

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Xixi Li speaks at a public consultation hearing on systemic racism and discrimination in Montreal on in 2019. 

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Former national security analyst Dennis Molinaro said Li’s meetings with OCAO and UFWD leaders in China is concerning and raises serious questions about her ties to the Chinese government.

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“It is well known that China uses community organizations to engage in united front influence activities,” he told National Post. “In a general sense, inviting groups connected to the UFWD or OCAO to political events could send the wrong message to Canadians and the diaspora community and the right message to China.”

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“We now have a community leader that has met UFWD leaders attending a campaign event for a Liberal candidate,” he said.

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During the English-language leaders’ debate Thursday, Liberal Leader Mark Carney said China posed the greatest threat to Canada’s national security.

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This isn’t the first time Mendès’ apparent ties to Li have upset her Liberal colleagues.

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Last year, now-Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s office expressed its discomfort after the Journal de Montréal revealed that Mendès had invited Champagne to an event where he met Li.

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Champagne and then-Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc also disagreed with their colleague after Mendès criticized the RCMP for its “so-called investigation” into the two organizations headed by Li.

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At the time, Mendès told the Journal de Montreal newspaper that she met frequently with Li and that she supported her “100 per cent.”

 

BREAKING: Pro-Beijing Group That Pushed
Erin O’Toole’s Exit Warns Chinese Canadians
to “Vote Carefully”

Group that triggered 2021 anti-O'Toole campaign now campaigning for Liberal candidates—while warning against criticism of China 

Sam Cooper

Apr 17, 2025

MARKHAM, Canada — As polls tighten in Canada’s high-stakes federal election—one increasingly defined by reports of Chinese state interference—a controversial Toronto diaspora group tied to past efforts to topple former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has resurfaced, decrying what it calls a disregard for favoured Chinese Canadian voices in candidate selection.

At a press conference in Markham yesterday, the Chinese Canadian Conservative Association (CCCA) accused both the Liberal and Conservative parties of bypassing diaspora input and “directly appointing candidates without consulting community groups or even party members.”

In what reads as a carefully coded message to the Chinese diaspora across Canada, Mandarin-language reports covering the event stated that the group “stressed at the media meeting that people should think rationally and vote carefully,” and urged “all Chinese people to actively participate and vote for the candidate they approve of—rather than the party.”

The CCCA’s latest press conference—surprising in both tone and timing—came just weeks after political pressure forced the resignation of Liberal MP Paul Chiang, following reports that he had allegedly threatened his Conservative opponent, Joseph Tay—now the party’s candidate in Don Valley North—and suggested to Chinese-language journalists that Tay could be handed over to the Toronto consulate for a bounty.

Chiang, who had been backed by Prime Minister Mark Carney, stepped down amid growing concern from international NGOs and an RCMP review.

One of the CCCA’s leading voices is a Markham city councillor who campaigned for Paul Chiang in 2021 against the Conservatives, and later sought the Conservative nomination in Markham against Joseph Tay. While the group claims to represent Conservative-aligned diaspora interests, public records and media coverage show that it backed Paul Chiang again in 2025 and is currently campaigning for Shaun Chen, the Liberal candidate in the adjacent Scarborough North riding.

The Toronto Sun reported today that new polling by Leger for Postmedia shows Mark Carney’s Liberals polling at 47 percent in the Greater Toronto Area—just three points ahead of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives at 44 percent. In most Canadian elections, this densely populated region proves decisive in determining who forms government in Ottawa.

In a statement that appeared to subtly align with Beijing’s strategic messaging, the group warned voters:

“At today’s press conference, we called on all Canadian voters: please think rationally and vote carefully. Do not support parties or candidates that attempt to divide society, launch attacks or undermine important international relations, especially against countries such as India and China that have important global influence.”

In a 2024 review of foreign interference, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) warned that nomination contests in Canada remain highly vulnerable to manipulation by state-backed diaspora networks, particularly those run by Chinese and Indian diplomats.

The report found that these networks have “directed or influenced Canadian political candidates,” with efforts targeting riding-level nominations seen as a strategic entry point for foreign influence.

The Chinese Canadian Conservative Association first attracted national attention in the wake of the 2021 federal election, when it held a press conference blaming then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s “anti-China rhetoric” for the party’s poor showing in ridings with large Chinese Canadian populations.

At that event, CCCA’s lead spokesperson—a York Region councillor and three-time former Conservative candidate—openly defended Beijing’s position on Taiwan and Canada’s diplomatic crisis over the “two Michaels,” claiming China’s detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor only occurred because “Canada started the war.”

The councillor also criticized Canada’s condemnation of China’s human rights abuses, saying such statements “alienate Chinese voters.”

The group’s views—repeatedly echoed in Chinese-language media outlets close to the PRC—resonate with talking points promoted by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, a political influence operation run by Beijing that seeks to mobilize ethnic Chinese communities abroad in support of Party objectives.

Shortly after denouncing O’Toole’s China policy, the CCCA publicly endorsed Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown to replace him—a candidate known for cultivating strong relationships with United Front-linked groups. Brown gave a speech in 2022 at an event co-organized by the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO)—a group repeatedly cited in Canadian national security reporting for its alignment with PRC political messaging and its close working relationship with the Chinese consulate in Toronto.

CTCCO also maintains ties with Peter Yuen, a former Toronto Police Deputy Chief who was selected as Mark Carney’s Liberal candidate in the riding of Markham–Unionville. As first revealed by The Bureau, Yuen joined a 2015 Ontario delegation to Beijing to attend a massive military parade hosted by President Xi Jinping and the People’s Liberation Army, commemorating the CCP’s victory over Japan in the Second World War. The delegation included senior CTCCO leaders and Ontario political figures who, in 2017, helped advocate for the establishment of Nanjing Massacre Memorial Day and a monument in Toronto—a movement widely promoted by the Chinese consulate and supported by figures from CTCCO and the Chinese Freemasons of Toronto, both of which have been cited in United Front reporting.

Yuen also performed in 2017 at diaspora events affiliated with the United Front Work Department, standing beside CTCCO leader Wei Cheng Yi while singing a patriotic song about his dedication to China—as the Chinese Consul General looked on.