China Could “Weaponize Cities” If Allowed To Dominate 5G Networks

 

China’s push to dominate new wireless technology will give Beijing advanced capabilities for “mayhem and mass surveillance” if they are allowed to cominate [sic] 5G networks linking billions of devices, according to retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding.

Spalding was fired from the National Security Council last February after a memo leaked in which he argued for a government takeover of the nation’s 5G mobile network – an idea lawmakers and wireless companies flatly rejected.

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Recognition of this urgent and grave matter is finally receiving recognition by the mainstream media. Chinese microchips have been planted within every facet of U.S. life, from the military to household PC components, as well as everyday appliances such as irons and microwaves.

Further information previously archived on Global Geopolitics can be found within the following previous posts:

The Secret Ways of Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei (2013)

Security backdoor found in China-made US military chip (2012)

 

Click for a larger animated version. (Illustrator: Scott Gelber for Bloomberg Businessweek)

 

The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources.

In 2015, Amazon.com Inc. began quietly evaluating a startup called Elemental Technologies, a potential acquisition to help with a major expansion of its streaming video service, known today as Amazon Prime Video. Based in Portland, Ore., Elemental made software for compressing massive video files and formatting them for different devices. Its technology had helped stream the Olympic Games online, communicate with the International Space Station, and funnel drone footage to the Central Intelligence Agency. Elemental’s national security contracts weren’t the main reason for the proposed acquisition, but they fit nicely with Amazon’s government businesses, such as the highly secure cloud that Amazon Web Services (AWS) was building for the CIA.

The Road to War: China vs the US

 

In 2016 Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, declared that there was no doubt, in his mind, that the US would go to war with China in the South China Sea in the next five to 10 years.

A US-Chinese military conflict would be on top of a vow by Trump in his inaugural presidential address, to not only take on radical Islamic terrorism but to “eradicate it from the face of the Earth.” This would be done by building up America’s already supreme military. “Our military dominance must be unquestioned,” the billionaire businessman, who now controlled the most powerful political office in the world, declared in his first address to the nation.

A year and a half after that speech, the United States is not at war with China, but its economic saber-rattling is arguably the beginning of a confrontation between the world’s largest and second-largest economies. Trump’s tariff threats against not only China but Europe, Canada, Mexico and its other trade partners, are also symbolic of a shift in US foreign policy towards a more isolationist stance – one that may not strictly be due to Trump’s belligerent personality. This article will get into the antecedents of this economic and military showdown and point the way to some possible future scenarios, including a war in space.

China Warns Trump “We Will Outlast You” As US “Significantly Escalates” Trade War

Beijing sent the first messaging salvo ahead of the Steven Mnuchin-led delegation to China (which will engage in trade talks over May 3-4) overnight when the PBOC fixed the yuan sharply lower than many expected. The signal was clear: push us hard enough, and we may just launch another devaluation. Or worse.

A little while later, Beijing did its best attempt at managing expectations, when it said that it’s “unrealistic” to expect to solve all issues between the U.S. and China at a single meeting, given the economic sizes of the two countries and their complex economic and trade relationship, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says at daily briefing.

While Hua tried his best to pay the diplomatic “good cop”, saying it was in the mutual interest of both countries to solve trade issues through consultation, just a few hours later, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi was the bad cop, who warned that whereas China would welcome a successful outcome from upcoming trade talks with the United States, it  is “fully prepared for all outcomes and will not negotiate on core interests.”

Restrict China, protect Canada

Spying has been in the news of late. It’s the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise hitting the silver screen, a Canadian naval officer pleaded guilty last week to selling military secrets to Russia, and the U.S. House of Representatives’ intelligence committee warns Chinese state-owned companies shouldn’t be allowed to own firms in highly sensitive sectors of our economies, for fear of corporate espionage.

The committee warned last week that Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp., two Chinese-based telecommunications giants, should be expelled from the U.S. market to minimize the risk of spying.

House Intel: Chinese Telecoms Pose National Security Risk

A House Intelligence Committee report released Monday warns U.S. businesses against doing business with Chinese telecom giants Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp, because they pose a national security risk.

Beijing’s Backdoors

Senior members of the House Intelligence Committee said on Thursday that two Chinese telecommunications companies are helping Chinese intelligence by providing access to data moved on computer and network equipment sold to governments and companies around the world.

Rep. Michael Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. could be compelled to assist China’s government if asked for data that passes through the company’s network routers. Furthermore, malicious code could be inserted in the companies’ software and exploited by China’s government, he said during a committee hearing.

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Rogers (R., Mich.) warned that computer equipment is vulnerable to “backdoors and malicious” code that can be inserted by foreign countries.

According to U.S. officials, both Huawei and ZTE have close ties to the Chinese government and military.

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In one case, according to other U.S. officials, China several years ago sold counterfeit routers disguised as Cisco Systems routers to the Pentagon. The equipment was found to be transmitting signals as part of an apparent intelligence-gathering effort. The counterfeit routers were eventually traced to China.

Full article: Beijing’s Backdoors (Washington Free Beacon)