'China is invading the world's privacy with technology' : US

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Exclusive story by P Unnikrishnan

US Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Keith Krach accused Chinese telecom companies Huawei and ZTE of being “the backbone of the CCP surveillance state”.

“Huawei and ZTE are the two untrusted providers,” he claimed. “It has nothing to do with the US and China. The US has no companies in 5G; there are the two Scandinavian companies in Nokia and Ericsson, and then there’s Samsung.”

Kraft went on to talk about China’s National Intelligence Law, which he claims is part of the threat posed in 5G technology from the country.

“This law requires any Chinese company, state-owned or otherwise, or any Chinese citizen, to turn over any information, proprietary technology, intellectual property, or data upon request to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) or to the People’s Liberation Army,” he explained.

“If you don’t, then you have to suffer the consequences, and they are quite extreme.

“These are one of the biggest issues with regards to 5G, because not only can you get into people’s most personal and private information, but you can also steal the intellectual property of a business, and also of intelligence.”

Intellectual property theft

“I’ve spent 30 years in Silicon Valley and I’ve had my intellectual property stolen. At the beginning of the year, I took Secretary [Mike] Pompeo out to Silicon Valley and hosted him for four days. On the first night, we had dinner with 36 top CEOs, and we went around the table and everybody told these horror stories about the CCP’s intellectual property theft.

“Since I’ve been in government, it’s been beyond my wildest imagination, not only how much theft there is—and it’s across the board from the research institutes, from companies, the military, and from our partners. That’s what they do.”