Chinese phones are stealing from the poor
The China Letter: August 28, 2020
High cost of cheap tech
Transsion, which manufactures smartphones sold in Africa, says it had no knowledge of the malware newly discovered on its devices. Nonetheless, it’s contributed to growing global concerns over whether digital devices made in China can be trusted: in this case, generally impoverished users were finding their money stolen through this malware.
BuzzFeed News had a second scoop about China this week: an investigation into how camps where Uighurs and other Muslim minorities were being detained are blanked out of the satellite imagery provided by the Chinese mapping platform Baidu Maps. Interviews with ex-prisoners also detail the horrors they experienced in the camps.
Hitting back at Huawei
Canada was told another version of the story about how its former technology giant Nortel was subject to a military attack from China, which has been linked to espionage from Huawei, despite their denials. But as the Canadian government seems ready to block Huawei’s participation in 5G networks, there’s some other unfinished business:
Meng Wanzhou requested documents related to her 2018 arrest on a warrant from the U.S., but a court denied access to reports from Canada’s spy agency. Lawyers for Huawei’s chief financial officer sought to prove conspiracy between the countries.
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Chairman by any name
China’s president is warning of “a period of turbulent change” which may extend to how he wishes to be addressed: experts say he’s contemplating a pivot to being known as “Chairman,” a title that was retired after Mao Zedong died in 1976. There’s also growing speculation of a more prominent role for the protégé who’s executing Xi’s recent ideas:
“Root out the harmful members of the herd,” said Chen Yixin at a recent Communist party meeting, as quoted in a New York Times story about the reinforced law-and-order strategy. “Root out ‘two-faced people’ who are disloyal and dishonest to the party.”
Shopping gets complex
Alibaba wants to connect smaller American brands with its vast e-commerce market, but the company also fears being caught in the White House clampdown on China-based businesses. And with the order to ban TikTok from the U.S. on September 15 if it’s not sold, owner ByteDance bit back by saying that it isn’t a threat to security in America:
Kevin Mayer, the former head of streaming at Disney who joined TikTok as CEO two months ago, announced his departure ahead of the American operation’s sale deadline.
The last words, for now
Mugbang is the term for “eating broadcast” in South Korea, where a trend of lucrative viral videos emerged with young stars eating all the calories they can, accentuating the sound. Their popularity extended to China, but those who go searching for clips are finding the stunts censored by the government:
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