Latest news with #MinistryOfStateSecurity
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Contra China's ‘Time Bomb' U.S. Spying Concerns, Trade Is Peaceful
It was inevitable that American companies would eventually reap the bitter fruits of protectionist activity within the U.S. See the Cyberspace Administration of China's request to Nvidia for 'an explanation regarding security risks of vulnerabilities and back doors.' American protectionism, meet your blowback. For background, the Ministry of State Security in China recently expressed worry about 'Backdoors' and 'time bomb' spying threats within computer chips. Supposedly the H20 chips created by Nvidia specifically 'could have been intentionally embedded – in the design and manufacturing stage,' thus 'allowing the manufacturers to control devices remotely with particular signals, including automatically turning on camera and microphone, or ordering automatic collection of specific data in the background and sending it back.' The charges rate obvious questions. Why would Nvidia want to engage in spycraft meant to weaken an alleged enemy nation like China? Exactly because China represents a huge market for Nvidia now, and a much bigger market in the future, why on earth would it go to such great and expensive lengths to build market share in China, only for it to endanger all it's worked for with 'backdoors' and 'time bombs' meant to harm the very country it's so intent on prospering within. The incentives just aren't there. In addition to risking the franchise with spying activities, why would Nvidia want to bring harm to China in the first place? See the previous paragraph. As evidenced by China's growth potential, Nvidia is heavily invested in the country's present and future prosperity. Which is the point, though it's one that protectionist entities with the U.S. political and administrative classes would be most wise to come to terms with. That's because every time a Chinese company has the temerity to succeed stateside, protectionist impulses within the political and administrative classes get to work on discrediting the company with charges of – yes – espionage. Consider a June editorial in the Wall Street Journal about increasingly popular (stateside) Chinese company, Temu. The editorial said, 'As long as Chinese companies are putting backdoors and malware on American devices, state AGs can help protect consumers.' The implied point of the editorial was that trading with the American people by Chinese companies was and is a way to spy on the U.S. If the accusations sound similar to those lodged by China's Cyberspace Administration and Ministry of State Security, that's plainly the point. Both sides are essentially doing the same thing. The attacks on U.S.-based Nvidia and China-based Temu (along with other corporations hatched in China like TikTok and Huawei) aren't about spying and national security, they're about protectionism. Considering Nvidia, Chinese businesses are big fans of its chips in much the same way that U.S. consumers are big fans of some of China's top companies, not to mention their desire to purchase the plenty of many more. Think BYD. The main thing is that when the U.S. political class attempts to discredit Chinese companies based on flinty national security concerns, they ensure blowback of the kind we've seen last week, and that some within the Chinese state love. Translated, they don't want Chinese companies to become 'addicted' to Nvidia chips in the same way that protectionist U.S. interests don't want Americans to become 'addicted' to Temu, TikTok and others. The best, most peaceful solution to all this is for U.S. political types to walk away. As we see once again from last week, protectionism begets protectionism. Not only is the latter anti-growth, it's also anti national security when it's remembered that the best way to keep countries from warring with each other is to allow the people within them to trade with one another.
South China Morning Post
22-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China's drone warfare exercise, warning over spy souvenirs: SCMP daily highlights
Catch up on some of SCMP's biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing China has staged a warfare demonstration using a full spectrum of uncrewed systems, underscoring its role as a leading global drone supplier, according to a state media report. GDP growth is on pace to meet leadership's goal for China, but a stubborn property slump, trade complications and deflationary pressure persist. Key rings, backpack charms, necklaces and earrings are among the items that might contain hidden spy functions, according to China's Ministry of State Security. Photo: Shutterstock China's top anti-spy agency has advised citizens travelling abroad to be cautious while accepting souvenirs that could have surveillance capabilities.
New York Times
21-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Chinese Officers Questioned U.S. Government Employee About His Army Service
Chinese intelligence officers began tracking an employee of the U.S. Commerce Department this spring, when he was in southwest China and where he has family members, at one point interrogating him about his prior service in the U.S. military, according to a U.S. government document. The man, who is an American citizen, has been prevented from leaving China since mid-April, according to the document, a State Department cable that was obtained by The New York Times. The cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, was dated May 2 and sent to officials in Washington, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House aides on the National Security Council. On April 14, the Chinese officers seized the man's passport, credit card, cellphone and iPad while he was in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, the cable said. The officers, who worked for the Ministry of State Security, China's main intelligence and counterintelligence agency, returned the passport on April 22 but told the American he could not leave the country. His wife is in the United States. The cable gives a glimpse into the operations of the secretive Ministry of State Security as it increased pressure on the American during his stay in China. It also lays out efforts by U.S. diplomats to get him to Beijing from Chengdu in early May, while Chinese officers continued to conduct surveillance on him. The man's situation became public over the weekend, after American news organizations reported on his plight. The cable obtained by The Times did not identify the man by name or give details about his background, but it offers new information about his situation. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Malay Mail
02-07-2025
- Malay Mail
US arrests two Chinese nationals over alleged plot to infiltrate Navy, pass secrets to Beijing
WASHINGTON, July 2 — Two Chinese nationals have been arrested for espionage and for allegedly seeking to recruit members of the US Navy to serve as intelligence assets, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Yuance Chen, 38, and Liren Lai, 39, face charges of acting as agents of the Chinese government and a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, the department said. Chen, a resident of Happy Valley, Oregon, and Lai, who arrived in Houston, Texas, in April on a tourist visa, were arrested by the FBI on Friday, it said. According to a criminal complaint, Chen and Lai carried out a number of intelligence activities in the United States on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security. The activities included paying cash for national security information and seeking to recruit members of the US Navy as potential assets of the Ministry of State Security. 'This case underscores the Chinese government's sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within,' Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. According to the criminal complaint, Lai recruited Chen, a legal permanent resident of the United States, to work for the Ministry of State Security in 2021. — AFP
South China Morning Post
17-06-2025
- South China Morning Post
China's state security agency warns of phishing emails sent by foreign spies
China's top spy agency said foreign agents had sent Chinese military research institutes fake job applications in emails with a Trojan program embedded in them. In a social media post on Tuesday, the Ministry of State Security said they were among thousands of phishing emails sent by foreign spy agencies in recent years targeting Communist Party and government organs, national defence and military industrial units, as well as universities and research institutes. The post did not give details of who had been targeted in the recent attack, but said in one case an expert in shipbuilding technology at a well-known Chinese university had received an email from someone claiming to be a postgraduate student, identified as Wang. The academic, surnamed Yang, described it as a 'vague' application to be his research assistant. He asked the student to send a resume, and soon after received a reply with an encrypted Word document titled 'Resume' that required a password to open, which was provided in the email. Yang downloaded and opened the resume but became suspicious when he realised Wang was not a current university student and that his major was not related to Yang's research field. He asked further questions and the person said they were specifically interested in 'vessels and maritime equipment'. Yang then reported the email to the university's security department and notified state security authorities. According to Tuesday's post, the email was found to be a 'double trap' from a foreign intelligence agency – it aimed to use the researcher as a source of information but also included a Trojan program developed by the agency.
