The Trump administration issued a sweeping ban Friday that will begin barring downloads and use of the Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of midnight Sunday. The announcement is the latest escalation in America’s tech fight with China.Officials from the U.S. Commerce Department cited national security and data privacy concerns over the move to ban the two popular internet platforms that serve more than 100 million people in the United States.Starting Monday, both apps will be removed from app stores and users will not be able to download the apps to their phones. For users who have the apps already installed, they will not be able to receive updates to the platforms. This restriction will quickly make the app obsolete on smartphones, as the inability to update will make it incompatible with Apple and Google smartphone software, which currently dominate the tech market.The order includes moves to render WeChat useless within the United States by banning American companies from hosting internet traffic or processing transactions from within the app as of midnight Sunday.WeChat serves millions of U.S. users who predominantly rely on the app to stay in touch and conduct business with people and companies in China.Like most social networking sites, both TikTok and WeChat collect user data, including location and messages to track what kind of targeted ad content is most applicable to them.As of now, TikTok will escape the most drastic sanctions until similar restrictions go into effect November 12 unless the company is able to resolve the administration’s national security concerns by the deadline. The order follows weeks of wrangling with the company, which recently struck a deal with U.S.-based software maker Oracle, the details of which have yet to be announced.The app, which has become especially popular among younger users, has proved useful in some political contexts, including for mischief.TikTok users made headlines earlier this year by working to inflate the expected turnout for a rally President Donald Trump held in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and making the actual attendance seem especially low by comparison.The deadline to comply with restrictions falls just after the November 3 presidential election in the United States.Prior to striking the deal, representatives of TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, were in talks with Microsoft. The partnership between Microsoft and ByteDance fell through earlier this month after reports estimated that the company would shell out up to $30 billion for the acquisition of the app.“We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” Microsoft said in a blog post Sunday. “We would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety and combating disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement.”The move to ban the use of the apps in the United States follows an August 6 executive order by Trump, in which he argued that TikTok and WeChat collect data from American users that could be accessed by the Chinese government. Over the past several weeks, Trump has pressured the app’s owner to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a domestic company to satisfy these concerns.TikTok spokesman John Gartner said in a statement that the company is “disappointed” by the move and that it would continue to challenge the “unjust executive order.”The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the move as well, saying that the order is an infringement on Americans’ rights to free expression.While the Trump administration has accused the apps of collecting data used by the Chinese government to surveil Americans, the government has not provided specific evidence to support the allegations.ByteDance has repeatedly denied that it has partnered with the Chinese government to siphon U.S. user information. 
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The U.S. Commerce Department said it will issue an order Friday that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on September 20.Commerce officials said the ban on new U.S. downloads of TikTok could be still rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late Sunday as TikTok owner ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.ByteDance has been talks with Oracle Corp and others to create a new company, TikTok Global, that aims to address U.S. concerns about the security of its users’ data. ByteDance still needs Trump’s approval to stave off a U.S. ban.Commerce officials said they will not bar additional technical transactions for TikTok until Nov. 12, which gives the company additional time to see if ByteDance can reach a deal for its U.S. operations. “The basic TikTok will stay intact until Nov. 12,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business Network.The department said the actions will “protect users in the U.S. by eliminating access to these applications and significantly reducing their functionality.”Oracle shares fell 1.6% after the news in pre-market tradingThe Commerce Department order will “deplatform” the two apps in the United States and bar Apple Inc’s app store, Alphabet Inc’s Google Play and others from offering the apps on any platform “that can be reached from within the United States,” a senior Commerce official told Reuters.The order will not ban U.S. companies from doing businesses on WeChat outside the United States, which will be welcome news to U.S. firms like Walmart and Starbucks that use WeChat’s embedded ‘mini-app’ programs to facilitate transactions and engage consumers in China, officials said.The order will not bar transactions with WeChat-owner Tencent Holdings’ other businesses, including its online gaming operations, and will not prohibit Apple, Google or others from offering TikTok or WeChat apps anywhere outside the United States.The bans are in response to a pair of executive orders issued by Trump on August 6 that gave the Commerce Department 45 days to determine what transactions to block from the apps he deemed pose a national security threat. That deadline expires on Sunday.Commerce Department officials said they were taking the extraordinary step because of the risks the apps’ data collection poses. China and the companies have denied U.S. user data is collected for spying.Ross said in a written statement “we have taken significant action to combat China’s malicious collection of American citizens’ personal data, while promoting our national values, democratic rules-based norms, and aggressive enforcement of U.S. laws and regulations.”The order is set to be published at 8:45 a.m. EDT (1245 GMT) on Friday, Commerce said.Popular appsThe Trump administration has ramped up efforts to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks and has called TikTok and WeChat “significant threats.”TikTok has 100 million users in the United States and is especially popular among younger Americans.WeChat has had an average of 19 million daily active users in the United States, analytics firms Apptopia said in early August. It is popular among Chinese students, ex-pats and some Americans who have personal or business relationships in China.WeChat is an all-in-one mobile app that combines services similar to Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Venmo. The app is an essential part of daily life for many in China and boasts more than 1 billion users.The Commerce Department will not seek to compel people in the United States to remove the apps or stop using them but will not allow updates or new downloads. “We are aiming at a top corporate level. We’re not going to go out after the individual users,” one Commerce official said.Over time, officials said, the lack of updates will degrade the apps usability.”The expectation is that people will find alternative ways to do these actions,” a senior official said. “We expect the market to act and there will be more secure apps that will fill in these gaps that Americans can trust and that the United States government won’t have to take similar actions against.”Commerce is also barring additional technical transactions with WeChat starting Sunday that will significantly reduce the usability and functionality of the app in the United States.The order bars data hosting within the United States for WeChat, content delivery services and networks that can increase functionality and internet transit or peering services.”What immediately is going to happen is users are going to experience a lag or lack of functionality,” a senior Commerce official said of WeChat users. “It may still be usable but it is not going to be as functional as it was.” There may be sporadic outages as well, the official said.Commerce will bar the same set of technical transactions for TikTok, but that will not take effect until Nov. 12 to give the company additional time to see if ByteDance can reach a deal for its U.S. operations. The official said TikTok U.S. users would not see “a major difference” in the app’s performance until Nov. 12.Commerce will not penalize people who use TikTok or WeChat in the United States.The order does not bar data storage within the United States for WeChat or TikTok.Some Americans may find workarounds. There is nothing that would bar an American from traveling to a foreign country and downloading either app, or potentially using a virtual private network and a desktop client, officials conceded.
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President Donald Trump has threatened a US ban on TikTok could happen as early as next week
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A Chinese firm with suspected ties to the Chinese government has been amassing a database of detailed personal information on 2.4 million people, including more than 50,000 Americans, according to findings by an independent researcher and an Australia-based cybersecurity firm.       Christopher Balding, an American professor who taught at Peking University’s HSBC School of Business in Shenzhen for nine years, analyzed the data with Internet 2.0, a cybersecurity firm based in Canberra. They published their findings this week.      Balding said the database was leaked to him in 2019.   The cache, called the Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB), contains the personal information of roughly 2.4 million people. Many of them are influential policymakers who can exert influence in their fields of specialty.   According to their report, the database was compiled by China’s Zhenhua Data Information Technology Co. The company was founded in 2017 and had offices in Shenzhen and Beijing. Its mission, according to a screen shot of their website, which was deleted not long ago, is to “aggregate global data and help the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”  Zhenhua Data’s marketing and recruiting documents characterize the company as a patriotic firm, with the military as its primary target customer.  Cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 was able to recover the records of about 250,000 people from the leaked data, including 52,000 Americans, 35,000 Australians and nearly 10,000 British citizens. These include politicians and businessmen, scientists, tech experts, academics, bankers, journalists and lawyers. Information about family members, such as the 11-year-old daughter of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was also recovered. FILE – An iPhone with Twitter, Facebook and other apps, May 21, 2013.Analysts say the data was extracted from social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as news reports and criminal records.  Balding told VOA that apart from open source, there was also data extracted from illegal sources.  “We estimate about 80 percent of the data is what we call open source. There’s also data that appears to be hacked or stolen data that comes from other sources, nonpublic sources,” Balding said.  In a FILE – The logo for LinkedIn Corporation, a social networking networking website for people in professional occupations, is shown in Mountain View, California, Feb. 6, 2013.”It allows China to know which institutions or individuals they should be targeting. This is why, for instance, intelligence agencies in multiple countries have warned about Chinese recruitment through platforms such as LinkedIn,” Balding told VOA.  He added that the database also appears to be targeting policymakers, including influential figures in think tanks and relatives of key politicians. By doing this, China hopes to exert influence on these individuals and possibly shift policies to its liking, Balding said.  According to The Washington Post, which obtained part of OKIDB, the database also targets military officials.   For example, there is detailed information on former Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson; his service history and complete training were highlighted in Chinese.   Former U.S. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly is also in the database, along with the names of his wife and four children, his educational background and his work history in the private sector.  A representative from Zhenhua Data told The Guardian that “the report is seriously untrue,” adding “there is no database of 2 million people,” while denying any links to the Chinese government or military.   Analysts say it is not surprising that a consultancy would collect detailed data on prominent figures in different sectors. What matters is how the data is used.  Arun Vishwanath, chief technology officer at Avant Research Group, a cybersecurity research firm, told VOA there are two concerns with a data operation of such scale and scope.  “One is propaganda, information and disinformation, and the other is being used for targeted attacks, which could have all manner of consequences,” Vishwanath said.  “We all need to have better cyber hygiene. We all need to be safer with how we share information online to store information about ourselves online. So this is a responsibility that each of us as individuals share,” he said. 
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Indonesia has had more than 220,000 COVID-19 cases and the country still hasn’t reached its peak. Social distancing is an important part of controlling the virus and new technology aims to help people stay safely apart. VOA’s Rendy Wicaksana reports from Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.
Camera: Rendy Wicaksana 
 
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U.S prosecutors announced charges on Wednesday against five suspected Chinese hackers and two Malaysian businessmen in connection with cyber-attacks on more than 100 companies in the United States and abroad.The five Chinese hackers, one of whom allegedly bragged about ties to China’s civilian intelligence service, remain at large. The two Malaysian businessmen, accused of conspiring with two of the hackers to profit from hacks on gaming companies, were arrested in Malaysia on Sept. 14, the Justice Department announced.The Chinese hackers were charged in two separate indictments handed down in August 2019 and August 2020. The Malaysian businessmen were charged in a third indictment returned in August, 2020.U.S. prosecutors alleged the hackers targeted a wide range of entities, including software development firms, computer hardware manufacturers, telecommunications providers, social media companies, video game companies, non-profit organizations, universities, think tanks, and foreign governments, as well as pro-democracy politicians and activists in Hong Kong.”The Department of Justice has used every tool available to disrupt the illegal computer intrusions and cyberattacks by these Chinese citizens,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “Regrettably, the Chinese communist party has chosen a different path of making China safe for cybercriminals so long as they attack computers outside China and steal intellectual property helpful to China.”In addition to charging the suspects, U.S. authorities seized hundreds of accounts, servers, domain names, and command-and-control (C2) “dead drop” web pages used by the defendants to conduct their computer intrusion offenses.The indictments are the latest in a series of charges against suspected Chinese hackers and come as amid growing tensions between the U.S. and China over the coronavirus pandemic, trade, and Hong Kong.President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the spread of the coronavirus and top administration officials have publicly called out China for cyber-intrusions and other alleged misbehavior on the global stage in support of its strategic objectives.In July, Attorney General William Barr accused China of engaging in an “economic blitzkrieg” to supplant the United States as the world’s only superpower, and he warned U.S. businesses not to bow to Chinese pressure in pursuit of profit.
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday he is confident there will be effective 5G competitors to China’s Huawei from Western vendors at comparable costs, adding that he believes Western technologies will come to dominate telecommunications.
“I am confident that there will be a cost-effective deliverables from Western trusted vendors that can deliver the same services, or better services, at comparative cost,” Pompeo said during an Atlantic Council event.
In what some observers have compared to the Cold War arms race, the United States is worried 5G dominance would give China an advantage Washington is not ready to accept.
With U.S.-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington has been pushing governments around to world to squeeze out Huawei Technologies Co, arguing that the firm would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying.
Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army, denies it spies for Beijing and says the United States is trying to smear it because Western firms are falling behind in 5G technology.
Pompeo said countries had come to recognize the costs of putting “untrusted” vendors in their systems.
“Over time, I think the world will come to recognize that’s not the right path and you will see Western technologies that are verifiable, trustworthy and transparent come to dominate the telecommunications markets,” he said.
5G, which will offer much faster data speeds and become the foundation of many industries and networks, is seen as one of the biggest innovations since the birth of the internet itself a generation ago.
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Starting Sept. 15, China’s telecom giant Huawei — once a symbol of Chinese technology prowess — will be cut off from essential supplies of semiconductors. Without those chips, Huawei cannot make the smartphones or 5G equipment on which its business depends, business analysts say.The sanctions against one of China’s most successful technology companies were announced in August, when the United States introduced a new set of rules that prohibit foreign chipmakers that rely on U.S. technology from selling any chips to Huawei without first obtaining a special license.In recent weeks, suppliers from South Korea and Taiwan have all indicated they will comply with the sanctions and cease their supply of semiconductors to Huawei on Tuesday, the day the new moves against the Chinese company comes into force.“Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production of the chip will stop on Sept. 15,” Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei’s consumer business, said last month. “Because there is no Chinese chip manufacturing industry to support, Huawei is faced with the problem of no chips.”Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Technologies Consumer Business Group, holds a Huawei Mate Xs foldable smartphone, as he talks to the audience during Huawei stream product launch event in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 24, 2020.MicrochipsFor all of China’s efforts to become a global leader in high-technology, the factory of the world is yet not able to manufacture top-level contenders in one crucial area — the microchip, the nervous system that runs just about every electronic device.An important mark of a microchip’s level of sophistication is how many transistors can be placed on its surface. The smaller the size, measured in nanometers, the more advanced the microchip.China’s best manufacturing process is believed to be able to make 14-nanometer microchips, which are several generations behind Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Samsung reached this standard in 2014. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is already making 5-nanometer chips.Kunpeng 920 chipset is on display at Huawei’s booth during the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, Sept. 4, 2020.While some of the most advanced semiconductor manufacturers are based outside the U.S., the industry is heavily dependent upon U.S. suppliers to provide everything from design software to manufacturing equipment.Washington first placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in May 2019, citing national security concerns. However, this ban did not include most foreign-produced chips. In May, the U.S. extended the ban to cut off Huawei from its non-American suppliers, which affects China’s own semiconductor companies whose market is in China.Early last month, China’s leading chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), indicated it will abide by the U.S. rules and stop selling chips to Huawei. Like all of the semiconductor foundries, SMIC relies on U.S.-based companies to obtain key production equipment.”The dominance of U.S.-origin technology in upstream sectors of the global semiconductor supply chain means that Chinese ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) firms across the board are exposed to U.S. export controls, regardless of what happens to SMIC or Huawei as individual companies,” John Lee, a senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), told VOA.China’s failed attemptsBeijing has a long history of angst about the country’s dependence on foreign semiconductors. Its strategic planning related to this key industry dates back to the 1950s, when the State Council convened a group of scientists to develop an “Outline for Science and Technology Development, 1956–1967,” which identified semiconductor technology as a “key priority.”In recent decades, from the “531 Development Plan” launched in 1986 to the multibillion-dollar National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund that was explicitly established for the chip sector in 2014, the country has poured considerable state resources into its semiconductor aspirations.A report released in July 2019 by U.S. International Trade Commission said the fund, along with provincial and municipal Integrated Circuit-related funds, are well on their way to reaching the goal of $150 billion.James Andrew Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Technology Policy Program at CSIS, told CNBC last week that China might outspend the U.S. “1,000 to 1″ when it comes to investing in semiconductors.In 2016, China’s President Xi Jinping noted, “The fact that core technology is controlled by others is our greatest hidden danger.”Xi emphasized the point again last Friday when chairing a symposium of scientists on the development of science and technology during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period.“Some key core technologies are subject to others,” he said.Last week, in response to the new U.S. restrictions on Huawei, China announced a sweeping new set of government policies to expand its domestic semiconductor industry by providing extensive support for the next generation of semiconductors in the 14th Five-Year Plan.In hopes that key technologies from the foreign firms will get transferred to Chinese companies, Beijing has also encouraged U.S. chipmakers to form joint ventures with domestic firms. According to MERICS, the think tank based in Germany, China’s quest for foreign technology at times even targets entire industries.A visitor is seen at a Huawei P40 Pro+ stand at the IFA consumer technology fair in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 3, 2020.“Almost all of the large semiconductor enterprises in the United States have received investment offers from Chinese state actors,” a research report by MERICS said.On the other hand, Douglas Fuller, a professor at City University of Hong Kong who studies the technology industry, said China should not be viewed as a failure.”There are only four firms ahead of SMIC in foundry services — two from Taiwan (TSMC and UMC), Korea’s Samsung, and U.S./UAE’s GloFo,” Fuller told VOA in an email.As for mass manufacturing, there are only two places with the leading technology —- TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung in Korea, he said.”Intel is even playing catch-up. Thus, other than Taiwan and Korea, the whole rest of the world is behind the cutting edge of manufacturing tech in this industry, including the U.S., Japan, Israel and all of Europe,” said Fuller.Will Huawei survive?It remains unclear where Huawei will be able to buy its chips. Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek said last month it had applied to the U.S. government for permission to continue supplying Huawei after new U.S. rules take effect. In the meantime, Huawei has reportedly stockpiled up to two years’ worth of silicon to keep its business running.”In the short term, it is difficult to see any effective options available to Chinese firms targeted by U.S. export controls on semiconductors,” said Lee, whose research focuses on the rise of Chinese digital technology.As for the future, analysts say the U.S. will unlikely be able to stop China from making basic semiconductors. Given enough time, the country’s vast consumer market for electronics and decades of investment will eventually make it a chip producer.”In the medium to long term, China will probably be able to substitute U.S. technology and develop a complete domestic semiconductor supply chain (though whether it can catch up to foreign firms at the technological cutting edge is another issue).” Lee said in an email.James Lewis, director of the Technology Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), wrote in May that Huawei has been harmed by the U.S. effort, “but the Chinese government will not allow it to collapse — Huawei is too important.” 
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Some people stuck inside during coronavirus lockdown are playing video games. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, entrepreneurs are catering to young people who want to share the gaming experience. From Kinshasa, Anasthasie Tudieshe has the story.
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