Acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf has said that he is reviewing the activities of TCL Electronics after finding that the company installed backdoors in the TVs it produces.
According to Hong Kong’s Hong Kong Economic Journal, Wolf said that the TVs produced by TCL are at risk of network intrusion and data leakage due to the installation of backdoors. The Department of Homeland Security will soon issue a business advisory cautioning against the use of data services and devices provided by companies with ties to China, and said it is reviewing the activities of TCL Electronics.
Wolf said the Chinese Communist Party poses a growing threat to the United States and is considering further restrictive measures against it. Those measures include imposing stricter visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party members and a broader ban on goods made with forced labor.
Recently, the United States has increased sanctions against mainland companies that pose a security threat to the United States.
The U.S. Department of Commerce published its first list of military end users on its official website on Dec. 21. Companies on the list will be restricted from purchasing a wide range of U.S. goods and technologies.
The Commerce Department said the Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to add a new list of “military end users” (MEUs), the first of which includes 103 entities, 58 of which are Chinese companies, including eight subsidiaries of the China National Aero Engine Corporation and seven subsidiaries of the China National Aviation Industry Corporation, among others.
This latest move by the Commerce Department means that exporters, re-exporters and transferors will need to obtain a license to export, re-export or transfer (domestically) designated items to entities on the list.
In addition to U.S. companies, the U.S. State Department has issued additional visa restrictions for Chinese Communist Party officials who violate human rights. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Dec. 21 that the State Department has issued additional visa restrictions for Chinese Communist Party officials suspected of human rights abuses, and that their families may also be subject to additional visa restrictions.
China’s (CCP) authoritarian rulers impose severe restrictions on the Chinese people’s freedom of speech, religion or belief, freedom of association, and the right to peaceful assembly,” Pompeo said. The United States has made clear that the perpetrators of such human rights abuses are not welcome in our country.”
Some commentators say that while the dust has not yet settled on the U.S. presidential election, the U.S. Trump administration has not stopped in its tracks against the Chinese Communist Party.
TCL Technologies is an electronics and electrical appliance manufacturer headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, mainland China. The group produces cell phones, personal computers, home appliances, electrical lighting and digital media, and flat-panel TVs and sells them inside and outside mainland China.
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