Tag: Huawei

The details of why the U.S. government has black listed Chinese owned Huawei telecom equipment has finally leaked out and it worse than I expected it to be:

On paper, it looked like a fantastic deal. In 2017, the Chinese government was offering to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it would attract thousands of tourists every year.      

But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in Washington DC, just two miles from the US Capitol, a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection, multiple sources familiar with the episode told CNN.  

Also alarming was that Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, which US Customs officials are barred from examining, the sources said.     

Federal officials quietly killed the project before construction was underway.       

The canceled garden is part of a frenzy of counterintelligence activity by the FBI and other federal agencies focused on what career US security officials say has been a dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on US soil over the past decade.         

Since at least 2017, federal officials have investigated Chinese land purchases near critical infrastructure, shut down a high-profile regional consulate believed by the US government to be a hotbed of Chinese spies and stonewalled what they saw as clear efforts to plant listening devices near sensitive military and government facilities.    

CNN

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese government is blatantly trying to stop the U.S. military’s ability to respond to a nuclear attack. The obvious conclusion is that the Chinese government must be considering a first strike option with nuclear weapons to put this much effort into preventing a U.S. response. According to the article the Chinese government is playing the race card and blaming all this on xenophobia.

Reading the article had me thinking of the book Ghost Fleet and wondering what other Chinese made technology is out there that could interfere with U.S. military operations during a contingency?

Leaked documents reveal Huawei’s secret operations to build North Korea’s wireless network – my latest with ⁦@gerryshih⁩ ⁦@John_Hudson⁩ https://t.co/612ctFaSIf

— Ellen Nakashima (@nakashimae) July 22, 2019

This is a good point, I wonder how infiltrated South Korea’s military is by compromised Huawei hardware?:

Washington may refrain from sharing sensitive intelligence with South Korea unless it stops using telecom equipment from the Chinese communications giant Huawei, according to the U.S. State Department on Thursday. 

The statement came in response to the JoongAng Ilbo’s question to the State Department on comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a radio show on Wednesday. Pompeo told conservative pundit Mark Levin on the show that the level of alertness shown by Washington’s allies in Asia to the national security risk presented by China “varies.”

When the JoongAng Ilbo asked whether Pompeo’s remarks reflected the U.S. government’s official stance that it wants Seoul to stop buying communications equipment from Huawei, a State Department spokesperson answered through a written response that the United States would have to review whether to share sensitive information with an allied country if that country’s communications network included equipment obtained from an untrusted vendor.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Banning Chinese products that could be cybersecurity risks should have been something done 10 years ago, but I guess better late than never:

Japan is set to ban government use of telecom products from Huawei and ZTE over national security concerns surrounding the Chinese companies.

Relevant government agencies will likely reach an agreement as early as Monday to ban the companies from taking part in government procurement, according to local media.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the move was aimed at preventing cyberattacks and the leaking of confidential information.

“Ensuring the cyber security of government agencies has become increasingly important. We will deal with the matter from various perspectives,” he said.

Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya also pledged efforts to ensure security.

The move comes days after Meng Wanzhou, 46, the chief financial officer and daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Vancouver, from where she may well be extradited to the United States. She is suspected of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.