Amid the stalled China-US trade wars that leveraged Huawei as the click bait, reports indicate the Chinese government has been forcing foreigners to download malware as they enter the country.
The story was a joint investigation from several media companies, including The New York Times, the Guardian, Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and German broadcaster NDR.
The report indicates the malware by the name “Fengcai” downloads a phone’s data, including call logs, text messages, and calendar entries, including other files (pictures, videos, documents, and audio) around 73,000.
The malware is just one among many other digital security practices implemented on residents of the Chinese Xinjiang region that is occupied by Muslims. In defense of the issue against criticism from the US government, the Chinese government has considered the probe as a nonlethal way of fighting terrorism.
The report follows the Huawei trade ban that has been loosened recently that was potted over concerns of the company’s tech equipment potential use for espionage by the Chinese government.
Recently China has blocked Wikipedia and even some US news sites across the country. The Chinese and US government are expected to resume their stalled trade talks next week.
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