US Blacklists Xiaomi in Widening Assault on China Tech (bloomberg.com) 63
Xiaomi plunged a record 10% after the Trump administration blacklisted China's No. 2 smartphone maker and 10 other companies, broadening efforts to undercut the expansion of the country's technology sector. From a report, shared by dxxt: The U.S. has targeted scores of Chinese companies for the stated purpose of protecting national security, but going after Xiaomi was unexpected. The Beijing-based company has been viewed as China's answer to Apple, producing sleek smartphones that draw loyal fans with each new release. The company, which vies with Huawei Technologies for the title of China's No. 1 mobile device brand, also makes electric scooters, earphones and smart rice cookers. The U.S. Defense Dept. identified Xiaomi as one of nine companies with alleged ties to the Chinese military -- which means American investors will be prohibited from buying their securities and will have to divest holdings by November.
Apple is made in China (Score:1)
iPhones are made in China. They could be putting all sorts of secret chips into them and nobody would ever know.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So is basically every piece of technology.
It is too late, we really can't put the genie back into the bottle.
I have a System76 Laptop. System76 is an American Company, they make a big deal about it. My Laptop is a American assembly of a Clevo (Chinese brand) laptop.
We are no more safer by blocking Chinese brand technology than allowing American Brand companies have 99% of its manufacturing done in China.
But here is the thing I never get... Why don't people and groups just test the products to make sure th
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
and on the other side of the coin, why would any country buy anything American when we know with relative certainty American companies have been forced to install hardware and software back doors for years now. why aren't more countries black listing US based tech, as a non american who's country is jumping on your anti china band wagon i don't get it, china may be spying on us, america definitely is.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I can state unequivocally that the USA is the *only* country with such extensive freedoms and all areas of daily life.
thats just horse shit, apart from the freedom to have weapons and school shootings, all of the allied countries are as free or more free.
That said, the discussion then turns to 'for what ends?'. Ostensibly the West does to further democracy and ensure the continuation of same in their own countries.
and thats just as much a pile of horse shit as the last statement, its done to ensure they can maintain their positions of power and wealth. freedom has almost nothing to do with it anymore, the US doesn't further democracy they further there influence at the expense of others freedom. Democratization is just a s lie used to justify the horrific acts they inflict on others
Re: (Score:2)
I can state unequivocally that the USA is the *only* country
many Americans are too busy thinking about how exceptional America is to notice what it's like in the places they visit, and you're demonstrably one of them
Re:Apple is made in China (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not about safety, it's about damaging Biden.
Biden has two choices. He can continue with the bans, in which case China retaliates and Americans feel the pain. Or he can remove the bans, and then be criticised for being "weak" and bowing down to China.
Xiaomi makes great products. Phones, vacuum cleaners, kitchen utensils, all sorts of random gadgets. They are good quality, affordable and get decent support.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
At this point the entire world knows that this is a right wing talking point first and and a pointless trade war second. It may well be true that buying your entire supply of electronic goods from a rival foriegn power is against your security interests. It is also true that this has been the case for the best part of thirty years and no one has done anything about it.
The anti globalist brigade exists for one reason only and that is that it elects right wing nationalist governments. It does nothing about mi
Re: (Score:1)
Well seeming "Weak" is only a concern for the stupid right. Who isn't going to vote for Biden anyways, besides that group of people follow so much fake news, having him allowing trade with a company would be so minor compared to the "news" they are getting about him eating genetically cloned Baby Puppy hybrids from Aborted Stem cells, to curry favor with the devil so he can help support the regrowth of communism to America!
This current method of rejecting companies without any facts, actually puts America i
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
This. 100% this. It's a craven political posturing where Xiaomi gets a little bruised, and the American public gets shafted by having one less choice when they go to buy a phone.
This is a protectionist move meant to fuck Biden with the jingoistic voters if he backs it off, or fuck him with China in further trade talks. Typical political horseshit from an outgoing unctuous asshole of a President who claimed to want to stop this kind of garbage by "draining the swap" - which he proceeded to fill with sewag
Re: (Score:2)
So is basically every piece of technology.
Fortunately, that is not true. A lot of technology is made in Korea, Taiwan, and other Asian countries.
What is true, however, is that returning America back to manufacturing supremacy is a pipe dream, and returning to manufacturing robustness is an enterprise that will take decades and is unlikely to happen due to the fact that almost all politicians in the US are morons.
Re: (Score:2)
"test the products to make sure they are operating within the documented specs"
A designer including operations they don't want you to know about wouldn't document the operations they don't want you to know about.
"It isn't that hard to track what traffic is going in and out of the laptop, and where it is going to."
You have to know *when* it is happening. We just had a major case where software was able to hide just by not immediately sending traffic at the time when people would expect something to
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
But here is the thing I never get... Why don't people and groups just test the products to make sure they are operating within the documented specs. It isn't that hard to track what traffic is going in and out of the laptop, and where it is going to. We can take a look at all the components and compare them.
It is not that easy. Actually it's hard. Given a general purpose device, like a laptop or a phone, there is really no spec regarding what traffic should be allowed or not allowed.
Re: (Score:3)
iPhones are made in China. They could be putting all sorts of secret chips into them and nobody would ever know.
Ever see an iPhone mainboard? It has, maybe 10 ICs. If someone added one, even a tiny one, it would be pretty trivial to find it.
Re:Apple is made in China (Score:4, Informative)
If they were doing that then it would make more sense to embed the new circuits inside one of the existing chips.
Thing is, it would be spotted fairly quickly because you can be sure that Apple and the NSA both sample those chips and compare them to the CAD files. Also it still has to get the data out and back to China without those packets being noticed somehow.
The NSA validates various models of iPhone for official government use. Trump famously has one he used to tweet from. I think there is a good chance they did a thorough job checking them out.
Re: (Score:2)
The more typical tactic is to replace one IC with a fake that does everything the original does, plus the bad stuff.
Replacement (Score:3)
That would be *much* harder then adding an IC. Apple's chips are all custom built by TSMC in Taiwan, and reverse engineering a baseband or SoC would be ludicrously difficult (TSMC does have a plant in mainland China, but AFAIK only Chinese based companies use it) China has been pressing hard to on-shore chip fabrication, but nobody trusts them with their masks. Heck, most of the board production equipment used in Chinese factories aren't built in China, either, as nobody trusts them with that tech, either.
Re: (Score:2)
That would be *much* harder then adding an IC. Apple's chips are all custom built by TSMC in Taiwan, and reverse engineering a baseband or SoC would be ludicrously difficult.
Who says you have to reverse engineer anything?
Just extract the silicone from a batch of ICs, add something extra, repackage them, job done. Absolutely no way to tell from the outside.
Re: (Score:3)
Still doesn't answer the question of "how do you exfiltrate data without it being seen by packet sniffers when the device is being audited for security by knowledgeable organizations"
Re: (Score:2)
You detect whether the audit is happening and stop sending data.
One obvious method is to not send any data until the instruction to send it is received, and then be careful when sending that instruction.
But not engineered there (Score:2)
iPhones are made in China. They could be putting all sorts of secret chips into them and nobody would ever know.
But not engineered there. Apple can sample products and verify that software and hardware designs exactly match what Apple submitted for manufacturing. There is a difference between partnering with an overseas firm and sharing IP, and keeping your IP in the US and only manufacturing overseas. Both are risky, but the former is much more risky. Not necessary in an espionage context but also in terms of training or bootstrapping your competition.
Only a related note, besides espionage there are unapproved su
GPU prices are crazy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Because people were willing to pay the inflated price. Welcome to capitalism.
Re: (Score:2)
Because people were willing to pay the inflated price. Welcome to capitalism.
It still doesn't make sense though. The 1080Ti and other cards of that series were released almost 5 years ago. They've barely depreciated at all. Some of them are actually worth more now than they were at release. Most GPU's aren't worthwhile for mining so the gaming market must be expanding faster than manufacturers can keep up.
Re: (Score:2)
Because GPU are both toys and tools. (Score:2)
Business isn't charity so why sell for less?
Those profiting from GPU can afford what they cost, so that's not a problem.
Those buying GPU for toy use (gaming) can either afford them (no problem) or don't NEED them (because they're toys not survival needs) so that's no problem either.
GPU are either profitable tools or trifling toys. That's why selling them is so profitable.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, all the GPU prices are going up even from the manufacturers because they've been caught in this trade war bullshit.
So thank Trump that your $600 GPU just turned into an $800 GPU.
Re: (Score:1)
Wow, harsh. (Score:1, Insightful)
I've been on Xiaomi phones for years after realizing how much better they are compared to Samsung. At a fraction of the price usually. I always thought it is a shame they don't make them available for the US market - I travel to the US and so I get the few models that work on T-Mobile LTE etc, so it was the Mi Mix 2 before, currently the Mi Mix 3 (non-5G). Even my 5 year old Mi 4 is still going strong passed on to its 3rd user. Xiaomi never had any US penetration, or even attempted any, so it won't immediat
Re: (Score:2)
Plus, I for one am not feeling safer being spied on by Google rather than Xiaomi or any Chinese entity.
Google, Facebook, Cisco, Microsoft...
Re: (Score:2)
I've been on Xiaomi phones for years after realizing how much better they are compared to Samsung. At a fraction of the price usually.
Me too. I'm not gonna say they're better but very very similar capabilities for a third of the price.
Is this all really to protect us? (Score:2)
There is not much I own, or can buy anymore that isn't in some way related to China. So far with these trade wars, the prices I pay for things keep going up, making the governments of the Unites States and China ever more money through their taxes.
What is the ultimate goal here? Unfortunately, the only one I see based on the approach, is to make it very hard politically for the other party to ever undo these things. Want cheaper computers? You have to remove these tariff's and calm this trade war. I
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There are plenty of cars made in the US. In fact, cars do have a "Made in USA" label on them - it's on the sticker in the driver's door, you know, where the tire pressures are listed. If you look closely, it'll have the manufacturer's name on it, and where it was made.
It encompasses most domestic (a lot are built in Canada and Mexico as well) and quite a few foreign makes (Asian brands mostly - European makes generally are still made in the EU), but many Toyota
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure some of the Chinese military have Xiaomi phones.
As others have said here, the Trump administration is going scorched earth and doing as much damage as they can before Biden takes office.
God damn it (Score:1)
I get that their Smartphones (which are sometimes half the price and use way more advanced hardware than US phones) and other advanced tech are a "threat to national security".
BUT THEY MAKE THE BEST E-SCOOTERS. DON'T TAKE OUR CHEAP E-SCOOTERS AWAY, GOVT!!!
Xiaomi owns most widely adopted IoT platform (Score:3)
Keep poking the panda in the eye. See what happens (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Fake News: This is Self Defense from the CCP (Score:4, Interesting)
China's Intelligence Law repeatedly obliges individuals, organizations, and institutions to assist Public Security and State Security officials in carrying out a wide array of “intelligence” work. Article Seven stipulates that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law.”
Was it an assault on the Chinese people when Trump cutoff travel last year from China because of Covid?
Re: (Score:3)
China's Intelligence Law repeatedly obliges individuals, organizations, and institutions to assist Public Security and State Security officials in carrying out a wide array of “intelligence” work. Article Seven stipulates that “any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law.”
So they have national security letters and such just like America
Was it an assault on the Chinese people when Trump cutoff travel last year from China because of Covid?
Considering it was only Chinese people that were banned from traveling with no quarantine or such for Americans and others, yes.
Fear not (Score:1)
Fear not, for Biden will reverse this in his first 100 days.
Re: (Score:2)
Traitors (Score:1)