{"id":212378,"date":"2019-03-22T15:50:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T22:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=212378"},"modified":"2019-03-25T22:05:54","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T05:05:54","slug":"u-s-companies-fuel-surveillance-in-china-as-chinese-companies-export-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/03\/u-s-companies-fuel-surveillance-in-china-as-chinese-companies-export-it\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Companies Fuel Surveillance in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Foreign Policy this week, Securing Democracy’s Lindsay Gorman and Matt Schrader described how American tech firms and institutions “are lending expertise, reputational credence, and even technology to Chinese surveillance companies<\/strong><\/a>, wittingly or otherwise,” following the exposure of massive quantities of surveillance data<\/a> by a firm, SenseNets, which claims to have a partnership with Microsoft. (Microsoft denies that any such partnership exists.)<\/p>\n

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[\u2026 T]he party is leveraging China\u2019s vibrant tech ecosystem, inviting Chinese companies to participate through conventional government-procurement tools. Companies built the re-education camps. Companies supply the software that watches Uighurs online and the cameras that surveil their physical movements. While based in China, many are deeply embedded in the international tech community, in ways that raise serious questions about the misuse of critical new technologies. Foreign firms, eager to access Chinese funding and data, have rushed into partnerships without heed to the ways the technologies they empower are being used in Xinjiang and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In February 2018, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a wide-ranging research partnership with Chinese artificial-intelligence giant and global facial-recognition leader SenseTime. SenseTime then held a 49 percent stake in SenseNets, with robust cross-pollination of technical personnel. SenseNets\u2019 parent company Netposa (also Chinese) has offices in Silicon Valley and Boston, received a strategic investment from Intel Capital in 2010, and has invested in U.S. robotics start-ups: Bito\u2014led by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University\u2014and Exyn, a drone software company competing in a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) artificial-intelligence challenge. This extensive enmeshing raises both moral and dual-use national-security questions. Dual-use technology is tech that can be put to both civilian and military uses and as such is subject to tighter controls. Nuclear power and GPS are classic examples, but new technologies such as facial recognition, augmented reality and virtual reality, 5G, and quantum computing are beginning to raise concerns about their dual applicability.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Equally concerning is that the details of technical and research collaborations with Chinese companies can be opaque to international partners, concealing ethically objectionable activities. When Yale University geneticist Kenneth Kidd shared DNA samples with a scientific colleague from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security\u2019s Institute on Forensic Science, he had no idea they would be used to refine genetic surveillance techniques in Xinjiang. Massachusetts-based company Thermo Fisher is also implicated: Until it was reported last month, the company sold DNA sequencers directly to authorities in Xinjiang for genetic mapping. Western companies and institutions must be far more vigilant in scrutinizing how Chinese partners are using their products, especially emerging technologies. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On Twitter, Charles Rollett highlighted more examples from his own reporting:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Infinova, a US-based surveillance manufacturer, sold video management software for use in Xinjiang’s “smart cities” in 2017. It previously boasted that it was one of the Xinjiang Ministry of Public Security’s top recommended brands. https:\/\/t.co\/4Dow3bsLqg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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After @ipvideo<\/a> contacted Infinova about this, all mentions of Xinjiang were deleted from its website. Infinova even got a trade mag to delete an old interview of one of their managers boasting that Infinova had over 130k cameras in XJ alone. https:\/\/t.co\/i7QnfIXzIV<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Also: Hikvision and Dahua, world’s 2 largest security cam manufacturers, have won over $1 billion in Xinjiang gov contracts for surveillance systems in mosques, re-education camps, and police stations…https:\/\/t.co\/FqXaIMnmtw<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/rZdJ9Q6fjp<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/jqRix5TOFU<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/AchLJab7cA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Both firms rely substantially on Intel, Nvidia, Seagate, and Western Digital for their AI\/storage\/smart city solutions. There are too many examples but this @ipvideo<\/a> article lists a few: https:\/\/t.co\/v4JNADlNeS<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/XWyuaf2E8n<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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When I asked a rep at a Seagate booth touting Hik\/Dahua integrations if they were re-evaluating their relationship with Hikvision due to human rights\/Xinjiang concerns, I was literally told:<\/p>\n

“We support everyone as long as they purchase our products” pic.twitter.com\/LPAXf8xB3b<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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There are many more examples – this is just the tip of the iceberg. Little doubt that Western tech firms are complicit in building up Chinese state surveillance systems. Question is: will they do anything about it now, esp. if no US sanctions are passed?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Anyway, worth re-reading @isaacstonefish<\/a>‘s opinion piece in @washingtonpost<\/a> highlighting this very issue: https:\/\/t.co\/wAYUhIHQRx<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Rollet (@CharlesRollet1) March 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps the most prominent recent case of a Western firm’s willingness to participate in China’s surveillance machinery is Google’s Project Dragonfly<\/a>, a planned search engine for the Chinese market which would have tracked its users as well as censoring their search results. The project was reportedly abandoned in December<\/a> after a sharp internal and external backlash, but watchful employees have reported possible signs of continued work<\/a>. Meanwhile, the company came under fire last week for its existing research activities within China. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told the Armed Services Committee last week that while Google had withdrawn from collaborations with the U.S. armed forces<\/a>, it continued to “support” China’s due to the \u201cfusion of commercial business with [the] military\u201d<\/a>. This spurred a Twitter rebuke from the U.S. Commander in Chief:<\/p>\n

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Google is helping China and their military, but not the U.S. Terrible! The good news is that they helped Crooked Hillary Clinton, and not Trump….and how did that turn out?<\/p>\n

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n