China orders ministries to stop using iPhones amid heightened US tensions
www.scmp.com
Ministries with portfolios focused on investment, trade and international affairs received orders on the phone ban last month, sources say.

A handful of Chinese ministries have told employees to stop using Apple’s iPhones at work, citing national security risks amid heightened geopolitical tensions with the United States, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The orders were handed down in August to employees at ministries whose portfolios are focused on investment, trade and international affairs, according to five separate sources with knowledge of the situation.

The measures were understood to be aimed at eliminating perceived national security risks from using telecommunication devices made by a US company, sources said.

  • JeenaEnglish
    47•1 year ago

    I think it makes sense theoretically, but the problem is that the Chinese alternatives are probably full of deliberate security holes which are needed to get information from everyone to the CCP but can also be used be other people to get information from the Chinese.

    • @[email protected]English
      18•1 year ago

      I’m sure the Government can go tell a company to remove the backdoors on Government devices:

      Remove all the backdoors and we’ll buy phones for each of our 100,000 employees and award your company a ¥3 gazillion support contract. But if we find out the NSA hacked our phones then there’ll be big trouble, Mao Zedong-style.

      • JeenaEnglish
        6•1 year ago

        But the higher ups still want to spy on the lower ones.

        • @[email protected]English
          9•1 year ago

          They can install the same management software that most companies around the globe put on their employee’s phones to track what their minions are doing on company hardware. You don’t need special backdoors for that.