- China implemented new regulations on Monday under its toughened counterespionage law, which enables authorities to inspect smartphones, personal computers and other electronic devices, raising fears among expatriates and foreign businesspeople about possible arbitrary enforcement.
- A Japanese travel agency official said the new regulations could further prevent tourists from coming to China. Some Japanese companies have told their employees not to bring smartphones from Japan when they make business trips to the neighboring country, according to officials from the companies.
The new rules, which came into effect one year after the revised anti-espionage law expanded the definition of espionage activities, empower Chinese national security authorities to inspect data, including emails, pictures, and videos stored on electronic devices.
Such inspections can be conducted without warrants in emergencies. If officers are unable to examine electronic devices on-site, they are authorized to have those items brought to designated places, according to the regulations.
It remains unclear what qualifies as emergencies under the new rules. Foreign individuals and businesses are now expected to face increased surveillance by Chinese authorities as a result of these regulations.
A 33-year-old British teacher told Kyodo News at a Beijing airport Monday that she refrains from using smartphones for communications. A Japanese man in his 40s who visited the Chinese capital for a business trip said he will “try to avoid attracting attention” from security authorities in the country.
In June, China’s State Security Ministry said the new regulations will target “individuals and organizations related to spy groups,” and ordinary passengers will not have their smartphones inspected at airports. However, a diplomatic source in Beijing noted that authorities’ explanations have not sufficiently clarified what qualifies as spying activities.
Last week, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council upgraded its travel warning for mainland China, advising against unnecessary trips due to Beijing’s recent tightening of regulations aimed at safeguarding national security.
In May, China implemented a revised law on safeguarding state secrets, which includes measures to enhance the management of secrets at military facilities.
The people’s surveillance state
I take the same precautions crossing a Chinese border as I do crossing a US one.
Reason 91627 why you shouldn’t go to this authoritarian shithole
Posting how much I hate authoritarian surveillance states on all my favorite NSA-infested social media accounts.
GrapheneOS and duress PIN.
That’s exactly what I was thinking while I read this
So like the TSA?
counterespionage law already pushed a lot business and investment away from China.
Not to mention a lot of stabbing targeting foreigners by nationalist https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-25/japanese-mother-child-attacked-with-knife-in-city-near-shanghai
I don’t understand who be interested going to China anymore
Probably wise for Beijing to do that
Anybody surprised by this hasn’t passed basic world history yet…
Seems fair to me, tbh. I wouldn’t go there without diplomatic immunity or a burner anyways.
A century ago the eunuchs run China. The secretary censors run China now, not the technocrats from the previous generation. Secrets and intrigue instead of information and openess.
First, obviously this is not good. Secondly, if anyone is complaining about this from the USA, you don’t get to. CBP has the right to inspect your electronics with no questions asked by you. They have a right to make a copy of all data. They have a right to seize your electronics and decrypt them if you fail to provide the encryption pin. They have the right to compel you to unlock and decrypt your devices if it uses fingerprint or facial unlock. They have the right to revoke your residency status if you aren’t a citizen.
CBP has authority to do this at any sea, land, or air crossing. It also has the authority to do this within 100 miles of any border. That means about 70% of all Americans live their day to day lives within the scope of the exact same legislation. And yes it is used, all the time. If you think it isn’t, you’re just ignorant.
if anyone is complaining about this from the USA
Not one single comment on this post has said anything about how America does not have this issue, or America at all for that matter. In fact, the only comments that are about a country other than china (you know… the country the fucking article is about) mentions how Australia’s border/customs do the same thing.
Do you really think it’s necessary to immediately regurgitate a ‘AMERICA DOES IT TOO!!!’ comment on any article with negative sentiment regarding a non-American power?
Do you realize we are allowed to discuss and criticize things around the world whether or not America is guilty of something similar right?
Do you realize we are allowed to discuss and criticize things around the world whether or not America is guilty of something similar right?
It becomes tiresome to read “Foreign Country is doing the EVIL THING! Rally around the burn pit and lets talk about how intrinsically bad their are!” when they learned this shit by watching us do every other western country do it first. Just feels like another edition of American Exceptionalism and hysterical far-right xenophobia.
Yes it is very important to say America does it too. Because most Americans have no idea.
This post is about China’s policies not whataboutism. It’s one thing if someone is actually saying the bs you prefaced with, but nobody said that shit. Nobody needs you to run around on every post and say B-B-BUT AMERICA TOOOO!!! when nobody said shit about it
Because Americans like you are too stupid to realize a propagandist article.
Fun fact. If you come to Australia the border force can basically do the same thing. Take a burner with you when you travel, it’s not worth the hassle at the airport. Bonus points, if you lose your phone or get it stolen it won’t hurt as much as if it happened to your main device.
Yeah, but Australia isn’t going to detain you for posting a picture of Winnie the Poo on your social media.
Nah, but if you’re planning a climate protest or are about to whistleblow some warcrimes/corruption you’re absolutely fucked.
Doesn’t matter when occurred in the past. You can be target if you have posted or done something that CCP didn’t approve of. What’s happening in Hong Kong with the “national security law”.
“Raising fears”
Honestly, let’s just abandon journalism to AI since there’s obviously no point to having humans doing it.
I don’t think the AI would be able to effectively create new fears to report on.
They wouldn’t be as believable without that human element.
Edit: wouldn’t not would.
Bringing your real phone instead of a burner phone into the PRC is just asking for your shit to get stolen. I have never brought my real phone into the PRC.
I wonder why, knowing this, one would go to China in the first place.
I wanted to see the great wall while I was studying in Asia.
Fair enough, I mean the history is fascinating, some years ago I might have gone, but nowadays…
Love to live in a country where my data is always secure and my government would never try to harvest my data in bulk. Liberty! Whiskey! Sexy! USA! USA!
I legitimately can’t tell if this is satire or not. I think you’re confusing the USA with a European country that actually has data privacy and consumer protection laws.
Europe has an enormous surveillance state, increasingly modeled (and managed) by Israeli surveillance systems used in Palestine.
Germany, France, the UK, and Spain already have some of the most advanced facial recognition imagine in the world deployed in their surveillance networks.
And the EU just expanded their legal use
Maybe you’re safer from an American tech company. But not from the local police.
every day we get closer and closer to ctOS in Watch Dogs becoming a reality
The worst that my country wants to do with my data is attempt to sell me shit I don’t want. (OK yeah we have one or two taboos: antisemitism and actual terrorism, but that’s about it.)
In some other countries, drawing parallels with certain emperors and certain A.A.Milne characters could cost me my freedom and possibly my life. Ain’t nothing stopping me standing outside #10 and yelling Rishi is a wanker!
The worst that my country wants to do with my data is attempt to sell me shit I don’t want.
Facial recognition technology and the growing power of artificial intelligence
In some other countries, drawing parallels with certain emperors and certain A.A.Milne characters could cost me my freedom and possibly my life.
Of course. Always in other countries. Never in mine.
There’s not going to be anything ‘arbitrary’ about those inspections… In a bad way.
