Lithuania urges its people to not use Chinese phones: https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/security/lithuania…
How serious can this situation be? Considering that a significant portion of the mobile phones in the world are of the Chinese brands, can it even be as risky as the articles believes it to be?
More importantly, can the Chinese phone industry afford to lose the market by doing anything wrong? Please share your opinions.
One minute I was watching something on TV and the next minute there was articles coming up in my Apple news feed about whatever I had just watched on TV.
They are all listening.
China might have more phone brands but outside of China, they don't have the market share. Samsung and Apple take those spots.
I would think that Xiaomi has a decent market share given its 'value for money' proposition and hardly any strong competitor in that category. I could be wrong as I haven't checked the market share data.
Xiaomi is a good performer in Asia but not so much everywhere else - https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/worldw…
Yeah me too, I don’t discuss state secrets over the Chinese phone.
These pop up every year. It'll be forgotten in no time until next year. Here's a 2014 article on a similar matter.
2014 was an interesting time for Xiaomi anyway. They didn't have their manufacturing and supply chain stable enough to meet demand for resellers. Meaning that if a reseller was to order 1000 phones they'd often only end up with 500. So how did a reseller counter this when they had 1000 preorders? They'd buy through other channels who had stock and you'd find those other channels had preloaded their own spyware in custom 'global ROMs'.
Interesting.. Why do you think no country takes any hard actions against such brands?
Because they're a Chinese company and you'll have to take them to court in China.
The integrity of your phone can't be guaranteed really. One has to accept that anything on their phone can be accessed by gov/hackers/no-click exploits.
I find it interesting that people go against China more than US.
We should treat them similarly.
You really think US brand technology are completely innocent on stealing your data?
You really think US have no propaganda or ad hoc keyword blocking/monitoring? Guess where all the twitter post went?
Both are making the most beneficial moves for their own country.
We probably should treat both the same way as a 3rd country, but IMO I think US is a bit more scary as there's more US army outside their country than Chinese army out there.
I always see this, "they are the same evil big country" argument. At the end day you an average can feel comfortable visiting the US, while with China not sure if you'll be brought in for questioning as a spy or some shit
FYI you probably want to check how many flight per day between CHN and AUS before COVID, and compare with USA-AUS.
I'd say a country won't be dumb enough to arrest a random individual to intensify the relationship between two country, forcing business and shipment to stop, and essentially starting a war.
I doubt probably North Korea wouldn't even do that, and you probably watched 1 spy movie too much.
I'd say a country won't be dumb enough to arrest a random individual to intensify the relationship
China loves doing exactly this. Western businesspeople are advised to avoid china for this reason.
Actually detaining people as a political bargaining tool is a thing. It’s generally Australians who were born in China and the reason is ‘national security’ https://www.thechinastory.org/perspectives-detention-of-aust…
The Australian gov calls these arbitrary detentions. You’re definitely more at risk if your a journalist but there was the crown casino employees that were detained as well, I think it’s a little subjective whether they committed a gambling crime, as it’s a different legal system. In the current climate I can’t imagine the US detaining Australians arbitrarily. I suppose it depends what you define as arbitrary. I’d definitely be more nervous travelling to China than the US in terms of risk of getting locked up. Risk of getting covid though, I’d be more nervous travelling to the US.
I can’t imagine the US detaining Australians arbitrarily.
Ever heard of Guantanamo?
But yeah, the chances are still marginally lower.
@ESEMCE: yes… I did think of that. Hence I backed it up with 'current climate'. Interesting world we live in.
@morse: Guantanamo still exists and continues to hold people without charge.
There are Current media articles about detainees who were listed as being eligible for release back in the Obama Administration that were only recently actually released.
@ESEMCE: Yes I read about this recently. Pretty horrific what has gone on there too. I guess what I mean is that currently you’d be unlikely to travel to the US, say something anti government and get locked up.
@morse: I recommend watching the movie 'The Mauritanian' a true story about a Guantanamo detainee who was never charged but held for 10? years
@Sickman: I’m confused - I just said twice that I’m aware of went on and is still going on in Guantanamo and agreed it was bad.
Still don’t think most Australians travelling to the US now are likely to be locked up arbitrarily, and that it’s more likely to happen in China.
That actually depends on skin colour/ethnicity, a brown/black person or minority person is probably more at risk visiting USA than china
100%
CHINA is Commie and Enemy. USA is Friends.
Simples
They really aren't comparable, although you are right that neither are innocent.
Take the two current hot topics for both countries, foreign policy:
-USA made a mess in the middle east. It's not hard to argue it was unethical, but the general public opinion is loudly voiced that it was bad. Even most of their gov members argue for leaving.
-China making a mess in tibet, taiwan, hk, south china sea. Literally banned from mainland history. Discussion banned and heavily monitored. Even other countries that argue against it are hit with massive financial attacks for acts as simple as recognising Taiwan. More locally we are still being attacked financially here in aus for suggesting other countries investigate the lab leak theory which is now pretty universally accepted.
What about social politics?
-USA has a lingering concern of poorly trained and standardised police. In response mass protests nationwide were allowed even during lockdowns, majority of government supported much of the protester's demands.
-China has literal internment/re-education camps and extreme police state monitoring for millions ethic/religious outliers that may pose any speed bump to the belt and road project. Journalism is almost entirely banned in these regions, discussion heavily discouraged via social credit.
These two are not the same.
sounds like China mostly keeping fight within their own/in their surrounding, trying to claim land back that once was theirs but maybe not anymore, and gain more control over their own citizens.
USA definitely sounds more shady.
BTW for laughter, try search Biden poops his pants on Twitter/ outside Twitter
Wait is this sarcasm or legit??
@900dollaridoos: Biden poops his pants? legit for real, yet they deleted almost everything from Twitter, so a big win for freedom of speech in USA.
I find it interesting that people go against China more than US.
The latter is a functioning democracy, and the former is a corrupt dictatorship openly engaged in genocide of the ethnic Uyghur population, and not to mention the massacre of its own citizens (Tiananmen Square in 1989).
Sure, the US isn't perfect, but it is far from the evil that the Chinese regimes have been.
So, don't try to tell us the two are the same.
"I can't breath' "BLM" "Jacob Blake got shot 7 times" "Colorado man who fatally shot cop killer was mistakenly slain by police" "Marijuana Legalization in the United States"
how many man down during the BLM protests in America, and how many shops got smashed during then?
name a gun shot incident in China? name a man got genocide in china in the last 10 years?
sure 1989 was forbidden to be discussed in China, so is Biden pooped his pants.
read more about Uyghur issue: https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-…
This has more to do with Lithuania's current relationship with China, rather than the actual risk of using the phones.
What happened with Lithuania, they are in an unfortunate spot to have frosty relation with CN and Russia
Trade disputes, establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan, that kind of thing. It's mostly just political posturing. Unlike the rest of the EU, that is largely cozying up to China. You can look up news articles about Lithuania and China if you want to read about them all.
Yes it's more to do with recent dispute between Lithuania & China.
It all started when Lithuania opened trade representation office in Taiwan and has been sending extra COVID vaccine.
"One popular device from Xiaomi – a company that sells more smartphones in the European Union than any other manufacturer – was discovered to be capable of detecting and blanking out the terms “Free Tibet”, “democratic movement” and “Long live Taiwan’s independence”."
Haven't got a Xiaomi so can't test claim. Smells like BS.
Typing out those phrases on my Xiami now.. "TIBET CHINESE LAND", "COMMUNISM IS KING", "TAIWAN CHINESE TERRITORY"
“Free Tibet”, “democratic movement” posted from my Xiaomi Poco M3 pro 5g phone. They say in the article they can switch filtering feature on and off. Maybe not switched on in Australia?
If true, I would support a ban on Chinese phones in Australia.
Yes it would be for China. MIUI for the global market gets modified with Google Services, English translations etc. and certain features like that as part of the firewall would be switched off. Much easier than removing it when it can be disabled.
Yes, but type something bad instead of "One China", "Family movement"!
/s
When Estonia says don't use Chinese phones I will listen. Lithuania - pffffft.
I’m all about balance, i.e. Latvia’s centrist opinion.
What does Kazakhstan have to say about it though?
Free Tibet, Long live Taiwan’s independence, Free Uyghurs. PLEASE throw away Chinese phones and products. Thank you
Chinese phones and products.
Find all self raising flour that's not 100% Australian and throw it out. Then raid every bakery and flour mill. We can't be having Chinese gluten everywhere.
Lithuania urges its people to not use Chinese mobile phones
Taiwan make better phones anyway…
It's possible privacy and security risk. Unlikely, but certainly possible. Huawei's 5G network and others banned in UK and US too.
I avoid Chinese-branded smart/connected products. But I also avoid Alexa, most Google products incl Assistant and others. Even Siri is switched off.
It's ultimately an individual decision.