Dec 25, 2020 08:00:00

Why Chinese companies like 'Alibaba' and 'Tencent' support espionage

In 2017, it was talked about that members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army hacked one of America's largest credit companies, Equifax, and obtained the personal information of about 145 million Americans. From this event, the trade war between the United States and China will accelerate, and along with this, intelligence activities via the Internet will intensify. It is often reported that Chinese companies such as Alibaba are deeply involved in intelligence activities by China, and the

Foreign Policy explains why.

How China's Tech Giants Like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu Aid Spy Agencies
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/23/china-tech-giants-process-stolen-data-spy-agencies/

To some extent, Chinese industry is always under the supervision of the Chinese government. The origins of these are very vague, but US officials say the relationship between governments and businesses has grown stronger in recent years.

In 2017, the Chinese government enforced the

National Intelligence Law, which allows state intelligence services to request companies and others to cooperate in intelligence activities. Also in 2017, the US National Security Agency instructed the country's intelligence agencies to step up information gathering about China's government and businesses. This will
The Trump administration is holding evidence that 'China has a daily public-private partnership.'

Chinese intelligence agencies order a large amount of information obtained by hacking etc. to be processed by a private company equipped with big data analysis function in China, and the processed information is immediately returned to intelligence activities. This allows intelligence agencies to quickly process the information collected by hacking using the company's analytical capabilities, eliminating the need for expensive equipment on their own.

However, there are voices of concern from the Chinese companies that they will be forced to work differently from their original duties, and in some cases the government may pay a reward. On the other hand, the Foreign Policy describes the relationship between the government and companies as 'Chinese companies are enslaved to the government' because Chinese companies are obliged to follow the instructions of the government. 'Many Chinese tech companies probably don't want to be the usual transparent companies and follow the national ideology,' said Elsa of the Center for a New American Security .