Apple, Microsoft and Other US Tech Companies Undergoing 'Security Reviews' in China

An anonymous reader writes: Chinese government is keeping an ever watchful eye on the companies doing business in the country, especially when foreign companies compete with local ones. To that end, the Chinese authorities have begun a security review among many different American technology companies like Apple and others. These, while mostly done out of the public sphere, seem to target issues like encryption and data storage. According to a report from the New York Times (paywalled; alternate source), government representatives have been questioning engineers and executives from different technology companies with regards to these issues for the last nine months. The so-called security reviews are being done by the Cyberspace Administration of China, with the government committee including experts tied to the country's military and security agencies.The Verge has more details.

Unintended consequences of weakening encryption

[headkase]

Hey, the USA should put back-doors in all encryption solutions! Then China could use them too..

You dumbfuck

[Anonymous Coward]

You dumbfuck. China demands front door access. Nothing about this is at all new or surprising. If you put about 20 seconds of thought into it, you'd realize that the only reason the iPhone has been allowed to succeed in China is because Apple has given the Chinese government wholesale access.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The only way back for the US now is to do what other countries with regrettable pasts have done: admit and publish everything. Open enquires into all the spying and bugging of American products, get it all out there and show determination to prevent it ever happening again.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Other people know the state is their enemy. Took Americans long enough, cuz 'Merica, good guys, fighting those nasty Mooslims. yaddah yaddah.

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[malditaenvidia]

The "civilized world" already moved all of its manufacturing there.

AKA, we need to see your source code

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks, now we can reproduce your product.

Re:AKA, we need to see your source code

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Oh yeah? Well, good luck making the actual hardware, you mor.... oh wait.

Passing is worse than failing

[WoodstockJeff]

Based upon the articles linked, passing these audits would be pretty damning for the companies involved.

Re:

[negRo_slim]

They'll continue to bend over backwards for any corrupt government with a big enough market. It's a race to the bottom for the almighty renminbi.

Pull the factory's out

[Joe_Dragon]

Pull the factory's out and china may well be Fucked they can try making there own knock offs but the TPTA will stop that.

Re:

[ScentCone]

Pull the factory's out

Pull the factory's what out? What does the factory have that needs pulling out, and out of where? Do many factories have this problem?

Re:

[ScentCone]

Fluid? I just paused to gape at the extra work done to insert an apostrophe where doing so makes no sense. How can anyone make it out of middle school and end up spending their time on a technically-oriented web site and not have the understanding that there's a difference between the plural and possessive? We all use plural and possessive forms every day while speaking, so the concept isn't foreign to anyone here, even if English isn't their native tongue. Who goes to the extra trouble to deploy an apostro

Re:

[Speck'sBacon]

Would it surprise you to find out not every language has plural forms in its language? Japanese is one example.

Re:

[ScentCone]

No, that wouldn't surprise me at all. Doesn't change the fact that someone who makes the conscious decision to use the plural form in an English sentence is completely understanding the concept of "plural" ... but then makes the odd choice to go out of their way to drop in a possessive apostrophe? Why go to all of that trouble?

Re:

[gweihir]

Hahahahaha, and how are you going to do that without bankrupting most of the US IT industry?

Absorbed...

[Danathar]

Xi reportedly concluded that the best path lay somewhere between these two, with the country needing to decide "which things can be imported but have to be secure and controllable," which tech can be "absorbed for re-innovation," and for "which things we must rely on our own strength and indigenous innovation."

"absorbed for re-innovation,"

Sounds like copying to me...

Re:

[balbeir]

It's like re-education for individuals, but for companies. I'm sure they already are building massive camps somewhere.

Re:

[Danathar]

You posted to the wrong story!

Someday

[thrasher thetic]

If they work hard enough, maybe their economy can become as noncompetitive and laced with government cronies as the United States.

Why "so-called"?

[gweihir]

While you may not like the Chinese, their concerns are entirely valid. They want to know what amount of US backdoors and spying capabilities they buy with the devices and expose their people to. Sure, the Chinese do this themselves, but it is their country, so they rightfully wonder about foreign spying, regardless of what they do themselves.