Information/Technology - 30. page

On October 26, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s top Internet censorship authority, made an announcement on its Wechat account that a campaign is underway to shake up the mobile browsers, that is, the web browsers designed for use on mobile phones. The first batch of targets includes eight popular mobile browsers in mainland China: UC, QQ, Huawei, 360, Sogou, Xiaomi, vivo, and OPPO.

The announcement vowed to focus on three prominent problems. “The first is about online news and information that the ‘self-media’ illegally edited and published. The second is sensational headlines that feature malicious exaggeration, smear campaigns, and publicity stunts. The third is harmful information that violates ‘socialist core values.’”

Between October 27 and November 9, those who operate the browsers are required to “conduct in-depth self-inspection and rectification according to the list of issues and submit a rectification report and standard of contents to the cybersecurity authorities by 5:00 pm November 9.”

The cybersecurity regulators will inspect and reevaluate the self-inspections by the operators. For the mobile browsers that have outstanding problems after the inspection, there will be punishment as serious as the suspension of business.

Source: Cyberspace Administration of China, October 26, 2020
http://www.cac.gov.cn/2020-10/26/c_1605276242092309.htm

Well-known Chinese news site Tencent News recently reported that it is widely acknowledged that the United States is behind in the global 5G competition and is not able to dominate the technological standards. Those in the U.S. have come up with a new strategy. They are skipping 5G and going straight to 6G. The top three American communications companies, together with Qualcomm, Microsoft, Samsung and Nokia have initiated a new 6G alliance to develop the next generation telecommunications technology. The intent of the alliance is to maintain U.S. leadership in the field. Apparently, Chinese companies like Huawei are excluded from the club. It is unclear at this point what the new 6G alliance will do and what exactly its goals will be. Professor Lu Tinjie, Standing Director of the International Telecommunication Union, said space Internet is not the true direction of the future. Instead, people should focus on computing-everywhere. The Americans can’t just bypass things.

Source: Tencent News, October 19, 2020
https://xw.qq.com/cmsid/20201019A0FS2B00

A number of Chinese mobile phone manufactures have become the most active players in the world’s mobile phone market. They capitalized on the opportunity from the recent setbacks that Huawei suffered and have begun to gain market share in the Western world. According to an article in the economics section of the French Le Monde published on Thursday October 15, following two of the Chinese mobile phone manufactures, Oppo and Xiaomi, Vivo, based in Guangdong province of China, has begun to enter the European market. Vivo will debut in France on October 20th. In 2019, Vivo sold 110 million smartphones and ranked fifth in the world, with most of these sales made in Asia. Vivo has close to 10,000 engineers in research and development. Its team in France is recruited mostly from Samsung, Honor, Huawei, Nokia and other companies. Vivo has established partnerships with other telecom communication companies and large retailers, and has planned to rely on word of mouth to break ground. It may also soon announce a partnership with a popular sports event.

In a similar situation, Oppo has greatly benefited from its partnership with sports events this year. Following its advertising during Laurent Garros Tennis Tournament, Oppo’s online search volume quickly rose. Oppo was launched in France two years ago. From January to July of this year, its sales volume increased by 350 percent compared with the same period last year. It has since relocated its customer service department to France. The sale of another Chinese brand, Xiaomi, has experienced a similar growth in France. It entered the French market a little earlier than Vivo, and it predicts that its sales growth this year will be a little over 100 percent.

Source: Radio France Internationale, October 16, 2020
http://rfi.my/6h51.T

In July of this year, the Chinese government introduced the Draft Data Security Law. Article 2 of that law states that the law’s jurisdiction extends to “organizations and individuals outside of” China who engage in data activities that harm China’s national security or the public interest of the Chinese people. It is expected that the law will take effect after being discussed and passed at the National People’s Congress next year.

Observers pointed out that the Chinese government may use Article 2 of the law, which extends the legal responsibility for data security to other parts of the world, to achieve its political purposes.

James Andrew Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Technology Policy Program at CSIS, (The Center for Strategic and International Studies) told Voice of America, “The bill gives Chinese authorities the ability to regulate data controllers, whether they are in China or outside of China, so it has an extra-territorial effect.”

Dr. Lynette Ong, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said that the draft law is certainly a deterrent to foreign companies, just like the Hong Kong National Security Law. “In fact, the effect of this law is to legalize their (the government’s) actions … but this does not mean that, without this law, no action would be taken. If any foreign organization’s actions harm China’s interests, they would also take action, even if there were no such law.”

In addition, under Article 32, as long as the police or another law enforcement agency adheres to relevant law and procedures vis-à-vis a request to access data, data holders will be obliged to cooperate.

Professor Ong said that this legal provision may worry the chief executive of a foreign company. “If I were the chief executive officer of a data company, I might be worried about whether to continue to operate in China. I think data companies are particularly sensitive, because their customers have high expectations for data security. Therefore, if a certain standard cannot be met, they may leave mainland China completely. In fact, this will have a certain impact on the Chinese economy.”

In 2005, Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, writer and poet, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for releasing a document of the Communist Party to an overseas Chinese democracy site. Yahoo!-China was later discovered to have facilitated his arrest by providing his personal details to the Chinese government.

Source: Voice of America, October 12, 2020
https://www.voachinese.com/a/China-data-security-law-its-impact-on-foreign-companies-in-China-20201012/5618170.html

Well-known Chinese news site Tencent News recently reported that Huawei’s smartphone business suffered a significant decline one month after September when the U.S. sanction was fully in place. Based on retail market share statistics, Apple iPhone 11 seized the opportunity and ranked number one in China’s domestic smartphone market. Xiaomi models took the ranks from two to four. Huawei, which used to hold the top sales position, did not make it to the list of the top five. The Huawei P40 Pro model ranked number six. Apple iPhone 11 won the top place with only 4G models when the competition was offering 5G models. It seems that all those patriotic Huawei supporters who refused to touch Apple products disappeared. It is indeed a surprise that Huawei had no product this year that even made it into the top five club. Huawei has already lowered its output forecast for next year.

Source: Tencent News, September 28, 2020
https://xw.qq.com/cmsid/20200927A06LEM00