President Trump on Friday suggested his administration would investigate Google’s work in China for potential national security issues just days after his top Treasury official said the government had looked into the company and found no cause for such concerns.
“There may or may not be National Security concerns with regard to Google and their relationship with China,” Trump tweeted Friday morning. “If there is a problem, we will find out about it. I sincerely hope there is not!!!”
The message appeared to contradict what Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Wednesday when he said that Google had allayed their concerns, saying that their work in China was “minimal.”
“The president and I did diligence on this issue and we’re not aware of any areas where Google working with the Chinese government in a way that in any way raises concerns,” Mnuchin said.{mosads}
A spokeswoman for Google declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google’s presence in China has received renewed attention in the past year after The Intercept reported last summer that the company was considering building a censored search engine that complies with the ruling Communist Party’s tight grip on the flow of information within the country.
Google has since said that it has no plans to expand its presence in China.