Articles about China

Putin bans VPNs and proxies in Russia as Apple explains pulling VPNs from Chinese App Store

Image credit: Evgenii Sribnyi / Shutterstock

VPNs and proxies are now illegal in Russia after Vladimir Putin signed a new law which prohibits technology that can be used to access websites that are banned in the country. The law also prevents people from using tools to stay anonymous online, and a second law requires users of messaging tools to be identifiable through their phone numbers.

As Russia hardens it implementation of government-imposed censorship, Apple has explained the sudden disappearance of around 60 VPN tools from the Chinese version of its App Store. The actions of both countries are seen as attempts to further thwart freedom of speech.

Continue reading

Chinese government forces Xinjiang residents to install spyware on their mobiles

chinese-flag-cctv

China's control of the internet is no secret and the government's latest encroachment into people's lives sees residents of the north-west Xinjiang -- a largely Muslim area -- being forced to install surveillance software on their phones, sparking privacy concerns.

Notifications were sent out recently informing mobile users that they had just 10 days to download and install the Jingwang spyware. Random checks are now being carried out on the street to ensure that citizens have the app installed. Anyone found without the software faces up to 10 days in jail.

Continue reading

Auditors to check all audiovisual content uploaded to Chinese sites to ensure 'core socialist values'

chinese-internet-policy

China's control of the internet is no secret, and the Chinese government has just introduced new regulations that require all audio and video content to be vetted by officials before it can be posted online.

The aim is to check that content adheres to the government's "core socialist values" and don’t stray into out-of-bounds topics such as homosexuality and drug-taking. The new regulations take immediate effect, and bloggers, media outlets, and filmmakers are concerned that they will be either censored or shut down.

Continue reading

China bets on AI to boost productivity and empower employees

Artificial intelligence

China is reportedly set to beef up its AI capabilities as it looks to boost and improve its tech talent.

According to a Reuters report, this is all part of a soon-to-be-announced national Artificial Intelligence plan, which was allegedly confirmed by a senior Chinese official speaking to China Daily.

Continue reading

Chinese company Rafotech believed to be behind millions of malware infections

malware alert

According to extensive research from the Israeli cyber-security firm Check Point, a Chinese digital marketing company called Rafotech has infected millions of computers worldwide with adware that redirects user traffic to fake search engines.

The fake search engines then divert their search queries through Google and Yahoo's affiliate programs to earn a commission for the company behind the adware. So far Rafotech has infected over 250 million computers according to a rough estimation from Check Point.

Continue reading

China's QR codes changing the way young people perceive money

QR code

QR codes are "changing social behavior" in China, according to a new story published on the South China Morning Post. As a payment technology, QR codes are going through a renaissance in mainland China, where mobile payments are now 50 times greater than those in the US.

Mobile payments in the States have reached $112 billion last year, the report states, calling on a Forrester Research report.

Continue reading

Windows 10 China Government Edition allows China to control encryption and telemetry

microsoft-china

Microsoft's event in Shanghai today may have been mainly about the Surface Pro, but there was also news of a new version of Windows 10. The new version -- which we reported about a couple of months ago -- is called Windows 10 China Government Edition and it makes a number of concessions to keep Chinese officials happy.

It’s a release that raises a lot of questions. The Windows 10 China Government Edition allows the country to not only use its own encryption, but also to control updates, remove unwanted apps, and manage telemetry. Users around the world will almost certainly be asking why control over telemetry is not an option for them, and what the implications of making changes for the Chinese government could be.

Continue reading

APT3 hacking collective has ties to Chinese government

hacker

Cybersecurity experts from Recorded Future think the cybercrime group we know as APT3 is on the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s payroll.

It bases its conclusions on the work of "intrusiontruth," a group claiming to have investigated some of the most important APT actors. Analyzing APT3’s C&C infrastructure, it came across two names, Wu Yingzhuo and Dong Hao, who allegedly registered many of the domains that the threat actors had used.

Continue reading

Microsoft completes modified version of Windows 10 for Chinese government

Windows 10

Microsoft could be on the verge of making greater headway in China after completing a modified version of Windows 10 for the Chinese government.  The operating system has been banned for governmental use for some time despite the fact it is already available to consumers in the country.

A joint venture with state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, Microsoft's modifications are now awaiting government approval. While details of the included changes are not being released, China's concerns about other nations implementing surveillance through the software will almost certainly have been a key factor.

Continue reading

Officials say it's time for the Great Firewall of China to ease up on censorship

china-open-door

The Great Firewall of China is famed for the restrictions it places on what Chinese citizens can access online. If a site provides access to news from the west, conflicts with state propaganda, or criticizes China or its ruling Communist party in any way, it is blocked. But some officials are now suggesting that it's time things changed.

The impetus is not a sudden softening of the political agenda, but a suggestion from the leading advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that censorship is damaging China's progress in terms of the economy and science.

Continue reading

Hidden backdoor discovered in Chinese IoT devices

Backdoor vulnerability

Researchers at Trustwave have uncovered a backdoor in IoT devices from a Chinese manufacturer that could leave them open to exploitation.

The backdoor is present in almost all devices produced by VoIP specialist DBLTek, and appears to have been purposely built in for use by the vendor.

Continue reading

China blocks VPNs, making Great Firewall circumvention harder

China flag keyboard

The Great Firewall of China is a famously totalitarian measure taken by the Chinese government to control what its citizens are able to see and do online. As with any such blockade, where there's a will there's a way, and people have long turned to VPNs to get around the firewall. But with a new 14-month crackdown on the use of such tools, the situation just got a little trickier.

While on the face of it the announcement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China seems like a new one, it is really just a drive to more strictly enforce existing legislation. The Chinese government is clamping down on the unauthorized use of VPNs in a move that will be seen by the outside world as a prime example of the country's dictatorial control and censorship of the Internet.

Continue reading

Chinese citizens can be tracked in real time

gchq_surveillance_eye_key_hole

A group of researchers have revealed that the Chinese government is collecting data on its citizens to an extent where their movements can even be tracked in real-time using their mobile devices.

This discovery was made by The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs who specialize in studying the ways in which information technology affects both personal and human rights worldwide.

Continue reading

Cold War 2.0: Russia is borrowing the Great Firewall of China to implement greater state censorship and control

russia-china-cracked-flags

The Great Firewall of China is a famous tool of censorship and state control of the internet -- and Russia wants to throw up its own version of the web filtering system. Russia already operates the so-called 'red web' which is used to not only monitor what Russian citizens are up to online, but also implementing blocks and filters such as the recent ban on LinkedIn.

But now President Putin wants to step things up a notch. Russia and China have become close allies in recent years, particularly in the field of state control of the internet, and there are plans to roll out even greater controls over what web users are able to do and access online, ostensibly from fears of an uprising against the government.

Continue reading

China's new cybersecurity law makes things harder for foreign businesses

china_encryption_lock

A new cybersecurity law has been passed in China which will give the country even more control over the Internet and will require foreign companies to store their data locally.

The National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the new law on Monday, causing a great deal of concern amongst human rights groups and foreign businesses. China already limits access to the Internet through its own online security system known in the west as "the Great Firewall" but this new cybersecurity law will allow the country to further censor and control the internet.

Continue reading

BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.

© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.