Chinese Ministry of Finance

China stops using some Apple products, fearing US espionage

August 7, 2014 by Joseph Fitsanakis 2 Comments

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org Apple offices in China
Authorities in China have removed Apple products from a government procurement list because of fears that they are susceptible to electronic espionage by the United States. Citing “government officials familiar with the matter”, Bloomberg News said on Wednesday that 10 Apple products have been removed from the list, including the iPad and iPad Mini, as well as MacBook Air and MacBook Pro products —though interestingly the inventory of removed items does not include Apple smartphone products. The procurement list is produced several times a year by China’s Ministry of Finance and the National Commission for Development and Reform. It specifies the types of products that can be purchased with public funds by all central departments of the Communist Party of China, as well as by all state and local government ministries. The surprise removal of Apple products from the list follows a report aired by Beijing’s state-owned China Central Television in July, which claimed that security weaknesses in Apple software could cause the theft of sensitive state secrets. Apple vigorously rejected the claims made in the television report. The action by the Chinese government is the latest move in a tit-for-tat cyberespionage war between Washington and Beijing, which began in 2013, when American defector Edward Snowden began leaking US intelligence secrets. In June of that year, it was revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been engaged in protracted offensive cyberespionage operations against China for nearly 15 years. Almost a year later, the US Department of Justice charged a group of Chinese military officers with stealing American trade secrets through cyberespionage. Apple is not the first American technology firm to be hit with removals of its products from the Chinese government’s procurement list. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence website written by experts, since 2008 Tagged with Apple, China, Chinese Ministry of Finance, cyberespionage, National Commission for Development and Reform (China), News, United States

Taiwanese spy operation led to Chinese official’s dismissal, claims leaked cable

June 27, 2011 by intelNews 1 Comment

Jin Renqing

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
The puzzling resignation of China’s minister of finance was caused by his sexual involvement with a Taiwanese spy, who extracted classified information from him, according to a leaked American diplomatic cable. At the time of his 2007 resignation, Jin Renqing, a Communist Party bureaucrat with over 40 years of financial affairs experience, was regarded as Asia’s preeminent finance technocrat. His rise to China’s most powerful financial post, in the early years of our century, coincided with the country’s meteoric economic rise. When he quietly stepped down, a brief press statement by the Chinese government said Jin had resigned for “personal reasons”. But according to a diplomatic cable authored in September 2007 by a US State Department diplomat, Jin’s resignation was in fact a summary dismissal, caused by his sexual involvement with a much younger woman, who is now believed to have worked for Taiwanese intelligence. The cable, which has been leaked by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, describes the alleged Taiwanese spy as a “promiscuous socialite” and a “social butterfly”, who had successive affairs with a host of senior Chinese officials. The list included the country’s former Minister for Agriculture, Du Qinglin and Chen Tonghai, Director of China’s powerful Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, also known as Sinopec. Read more of this post