GITHUB IS NOT a household name. But the American company, which is the world’s largest repository of open-source software, provides vital digital infrastructure on which much of the multibillion-dollar software business depends. So vital that Microsoft was happy to pay $7.5bn for the firm in 2018. The software giant’s boss, Satya Nadella, noted at the time that digital technology now pervades societies and economies, and that software developers are its architects. “GitHub”, he added, “is their home.”



More Chinese developers may soon find cosier shelter there. GitHub’s plans to expand in China have not been announced and are at an early stage. But public event listings show that the firm’s chief operating officer, Erica Brescia, has travelled to China repeatedly in recent months to meet Chinese coders. In mid-September she was in Shanghai, hosting GitHub’s first-ever event in mainland China. On December 2nd she co-hosted an event for developers in Shenzhen. On December 4th she co-hosted another in Beijing.

Sheng Wu, a software developer in Beijing who attended that event, says GitHub discussed the possibility of expanding its Chinese operations openly. Another attendee confirmed his account. There are other indicators. One GitHub employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said that GitHub Enterprise, the firm’s money-spinning product aimed at large companies, had recently passed a Chinese government standard called GB18030 that is a prerequisite for offering services in China. Microsoft does not publish GitHub’s financial information, but if the number of developers is a guide, China is its second-most-important market after America, and growing fast.

The details of GitHub’s plans are unclear. One path would see the firm placing servers closer to its Chinese developers, perhaps in Hong Kong or Singapore. Chinese developers would welcome that, as patchy access to GitHub is a regular complaint. The up-to-date location of the firm’s servers are not public, but as of 2017 they were all in America, a fact which makes connections from China slow and unreliable.

A more provocative option would be to establish a company that falls under the purview of the Chinese government. That would allow GitHub to run servers in mainland China itself, but would raise questions about how the firm would manage databases of computer code that straddle Chinese and American jurisdictions. GitHub declined to discuss the matter, merely noting that “China is one of the fastest growing developer communities on GitHub”, and stating that the firm is focused on understanding China’s growth and supporting developers.

Its plans could attract official attention in the West. Because they are published openly, the projects that GitHub hosts are not subject to American export controls of the kind that have dogged Chinese technology companies in recent months. For that reason, the Chinese government is increasingly interested in stimulating the development of open-source software, as part of a more general attempt to build a domestic computing industry independent of American technology and influence. But what is attractive to Beijing is likely to worry Washington. Unlike its businessmen, America's politicians are pushing for less technological collaboration with China, not more.