China's track record with privacy violations, control of the internet and control of its citizens is well known. But now anyone who has ever visited the country has cause for concern.

Enter China via the border crossing between Xinjiang and Kyrgyzstan, and you're required to hand over your phone -- unlocked. This would obviously lead the owner to expect a little rooting around by officials, but an investigation has found that border officials are actually installing secret spy apps on iPhones and Android phones to scour emails, texts and other data stored on devices.

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Amazon's e-ink Kindle-reader devices, Fire tablets, and the associated e-book service are wildly popular. Competitor devices, such as the Nook from Barnes and Noble, simply don't compare. Is it worrying that Amazon essentially has a stranglehold on the digital book market? I suppose, but look, no other company has truly put up a worthy alternative. Even Apple's Books service, while decent, doesn't have an e-ink reader -- reading on an iPad is not ideal.

Sadly, Traditional Chinese readers were not able to properly take advantage of Amazon's Kindle. Thankfully, this has now changed. Yes, Amazon has brought support for Traditional Chinese books to Kindle!

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The censorial Great Firewall of China is famed throughout the world for the restrictions it places on Chinese citizens. Internet users play a game of cat and mouse, seeking tools and methods for slipping through the censoring and spying that the government enforces.

But it is getting harder and harder to evade the Great Firewall. VPNs that once allowed unfettered access to the greater internet are quickly stomped on by the Chinese government, just as happens in Russia. At the end of March, a new update to the firewall blacklisted hundreds of VPN servers and now fewer VPN tools than ever work in China. So which is the best VPN for those fighting the Great Firewall?

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Amid concerns about the company's security, and its possible links to the Chinese government, Huawei has been banned from providing essential parts of the UK's 5G network.

The Chinese telecoms firm has already been hit with bans and restrictions in the US and other parts of the world, and Huawei has been criticized for its "very, very shoddy" security. Now UK prime minister Theresa May has taken advice from the National Security Council and implemented a partial ban on Huawei's involvement in 5G in the UK, permitting it to only supply "non-core" technology.

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Despite the hype and excitement surrounding the first batch of foldable smartphones, the image of the Samsung Galaxy Fold has been tarnished before the device has even launched. There have been numerous reports of serious problems with handsets sent out for review, and now Samsung has delayed the launch of the phone in China.

Two launch events were due to be held this week on Tuesday and Wednesday for the $2,000 phone, but these have been postponed. For now, it is just the Chinese launch events that are affected, and it is not clear if Samsung will also delay launch events in other countries.

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Huawei has had a rough time of things when it comes to international relations, with the US and others implementing various bans on the use of the company's products. It all stems from fears about Huawei's alleged connections to the Chinese government and the potential for espionage, but this is something the company has denied time and time again.

The US has made no secret of its doubts about Huawei, and the fears have spread around the globe. Now, according to a report, the CIA has issued a warning to the UK saying that the firm has received funding from Chinese state security.

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In its fifth annual report, the UK's Huawei oversight board says that the Chinese firm poses a threat to national security. It reached the conclusion after discovering that the company has made "no material progress" in addressing the security flaws highlighted in last year's report.

But while the report was damning of Huawei, saying it found additional "significant technical issues in Huawei’s engineering processes leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks", the board stopped short of calling for a ban on Huawei's involvement in 5G in the UK.

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There are many Linux distributions in the wild nowadays, but none are more beautiful than deepin. Even though I don't use the operating system regularly (I prefer Fedora and GNOME), I recognize deepin's beauty as second to none. Some people refuse to use the distro because its developers are in China, but in reality, it should be fine to use. Just like concerns about Huawei hardware, it is largely due to xenophobia.

While deepin has always seemed rock solid to me, its base of Debian unstable apparently made it less reliable than the developers liked. As a result, beginning with the new 15.9.2 beta, deepin is switching to Debian stable. In other words, the developers are not only focused on the superficial.

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The US has made no secret of the fact it does not trust Huawei, and the company's hardware has been shunned by the government over fears about Chinese espionage. There have also been calls for Huawei hardware to be barred from the US power grid.

The smartphone manufacturer has previously indicated that it is not willing to go down without a fight, and this threat could be about to be put into action. Huawei is said to be preparing to sue the US government, challenging last year's addition to the US National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to sources talking to the New York Times.

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Huawei may well be causing excitement with its foldable smartphone, the Mate X, but the company's troubles in the US continue. The American government has already banned the use of some Huawei equipment, including in 5G networks, and there are now calls for the shunning of the Chinese company to spread to the US power grid.

Although Huawei has remained defiant in the face of sanctions by the US, the Senate Intelligence Committee has now written to the Departments of Homeland Security and Energy, calling on them to block the company's network-connected hardware from being used in the electrical grid.

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The founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, has hit back against Trump's ban on the use of his company's hardware because of concerns about Chinese espionage, saying "there's no way the US can crush us". The US has been trying to encourage other countries to follow its lead in shunning Huawei, but the UK has said it will not stop the company -- which is due to launch its P30 range of smartphones next month -- from getting involved in the rollout of 5G networks.

Ren also lashed out at the US, saying that the arrest of his daughter and Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was politically motivated.

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With concerns about Chinese spying, the US has been embarked on a campaign to prevent Huawei from operating in the country. In addition to banning officials from spending money on Huawei equipment, the US government has been trying to convince other countries to follow its lead and shun the company.

Despite US pressure -- and similar moves by New Zealand and Australia -- the UK says that it has no plans to cut Huawei technology out of 5G networks. The National Cyber Security Centre says that there are ways to mitigate against any potential risk posed by Huawei equipment.

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Chinese smartphone-maker Huawei has sacked an employee after he was arrested in Poland, charged with spying. Weijing Wang, the company's sales director in Poland, was dismissed by Huawei as it tries to limit the damage to its reputation -- the company is already viewed as a potential security risk by numerous countries including the US.

Huawei insists that the charges leveled against Wang are unrelated to the company, but said that the allegations brought it into disrepute. Poland's internal affairs minister, Joachim Brudziński, has called on NATO and the EU to work together to decide whether Huawei should be excluded from operating in some markets.

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Tomorrow is New Year's Eve in America (and other countries that use the Gregorian calendar), meaning many people will be out partying with friends and family. Me? I like to stay in and watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on TV while eating some tasty snacks and drinking Perrier. True, the television broadcast is not as good since Mr. Clark died, and Ryan Seacrest is insufferable, but I am a creature of habit, I suppose.

In China and other parts of the world, the Lunar New Year is followed instead, with the holiday often happening in January or February. The Chinese assign an animal to represent the year, and on February 5 2019, it will officially start "The Year of the Pig." Microsoft has created a new Windows 10 theme to commemorate the upcoming occasion. In other words, the company is using a pig theme to try and put lipstick on the "oinker" that is its terrible operating system.

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Apple has made iOS 12.1.2 available to iPhone users, just two weeks after the public release of iOS 12.1.1. The fourth update to the iPhone operating system since it was launched includes fixes for problems with eSIM and connectivity.

But while iPhone owners around the world will be pleased to receive another update, Qualcomm remains unhappy with Apple. The company complained that Apple was violating two of its software patents, and last week a Chinese court banned the sale of certain older iPhones. Apple said that this week's update would "address any possible concern about our compliance with the order"; Qualcomm says the company is still violating the court order.

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