Elite U.S. school MIT cuts ties with Chinese tech firms Huawei, ZTE

[Get Ya Wig Split]

Elite U.S. school MIT cuts ties with Chinese tech firms Huawei, ZTE

(Reuters) - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has severed ties with Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp as U.S. authorities investigate the Chinese firms for alleged sanctions violations, it said on Wednesday.

MIT is the latest top U.S. education institution to unplug telecom equipment made by Huawei and other Chinese companies to avoid losing federal funding.

"MIT is not accepting new engagements or renewing existing ones with Huawei and ZTE or their respective subsidiaries due to federal investigations regarding violations of sanction restrictions," Maria Zuber, its vice president for research, said bit.ly/2K528XIin a letter on its website.

Collaborations with China, Russia and Saudi Arabia would face additional administrative review procedures, Zuber added.

“The institute will revisit collaborations with these entities as circumstances dictate,” she said.

Britain’s Oxford University stopped accepting funding from Huawei this year.


“We’re disappointed by MIT’s decision, but we understand the pressure they’re under at the moment,” Huawei said on Thursday, adding that it denies the allegations of the U.S. government.

“We trust the U.S. judicial system will ultimately reach the right conclusion,” Huawei said.

Meanwhile, ZTE did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the United States on charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

She denies wrongdoing.

U.S. sanctions forced ZTE to stop most business between April and July last year after Commerce Department officials had said it broke a pact and was caught illegally shipping U.S.-origin goods to Iran and North Korea. The sanctions were lifted after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties.


In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry referred questions to the two companies, but said Chinese firms were required to abide by local laws.

“At the same time, we ask that governments in countries where they are based provide a just, fair, and nondiscriminatory environment,” its spokesman, Geng Shuang, told a news briefing on Thursday.

Chinese telecoms equipment makers have also been facing mounting scrutiny, led by the United States, amid worries Beijing could use their equipment for spying. The companies, however, have said the concerns are unfounded.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...h-chinese-tech-firms-huawei-zte-idUSKCN1RG0FS

@beijingwalker @Char @Two @ZeEa5KPul @TaiShang @Galactic Penguin SST

 

[R Wing]

LOL, the US has got to be the most hypocritical power on the planet.

It's okay for the NSA to snoop on its citizens, of course. Bullying institutions to cut ties under threat of losing federal funding says a lot about academic freedom.

If this was coming from a State that hadn't engaged in senseless wars (no WMDs in Iraq, begging Pakistan for a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, failed regime change in Syria, etc.) and did not conduct mass surveillance of its own people, it might have made sense.

 

[Globenim]

LOL, the US has got to be the most hypocritical power on the planet.

It's okay for the NSA to snoop on its citizens, of course. Bullying institutions to cut ties under threat of losing federal funding says a lot about academic freedom.

If this was coming from a State that hadn't engaged in senseless wars (no WMDs in Iraq, begging Pakistan for a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, failed regime change in Syria, etc.) and did not conduct mass surveillance of its own people, it might have made sense.

Its quite more than just bullying. The U.S. regime is very openly threatening and blackmailing its "free" citizens and institutions with arbitrary punitive measures, if they opt for the superior technology and services on their so called "free" market rather than the U.S. regime "friendly" ones.

MIT was very clear in it's language that Huawei (as everyone already knows) never was the or an issue.

 

[R Wing]

Its quite more than just bullying. The U.S. regime is very openly blackmailing its "free" citizens and institutions with arbitrary punitive measures if they opt for the superior technology and services on their so called "free" market, rather than the U.S. regime "friendly" ones.

It's okay to sell billions in arms to the Saudi dictatorship --- no call for regime change there!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

LOL, the US has got to be the most hypocritical power on the planet.

It's okay for the NSA to snoop on its citizens, of course. Bullying institutions to cut ties under threat of losing federal funding says a lot about academic freedom.

If this was coming from a State that hadn't engaged in senseless wars (no WMDs in Iraq, begging Pakistan for a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, failed regime change in Syria, etc.) and did not conduct mass surveillance of its own people, it might have made sense.

If you are going to make outlandish claims at least get your facts straight. The FBI watches US citizens..the NSA watches non-citizens.

Nobody here is upset about the NSA listening to other countries communications. Thumbs up to them!

 

[Globenim]

LOL, the US has got to be the most hypocritical power on the planet.

It's okay for the NSA to snoop on its citizens, of course. Bullying institutions to cut ties under threat of losing federal funding says a lot about academic freedom.

If this was coming from a State that hadn't engaged in senseless wars (no WMDs in Iraq, begging Pakistan for a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, failed regime change in Syria, etc.) and did not conduct mass surveillance of its own people, it might have made sense.

It's quite hillarious the U.S. regime makes outlandish claims about Huawei espionage threats and is trying to coerce other countries to damage Chinese business based on these claims as well without producing any facts to back it up, yet at the same time the U.S. openly admits to spying on Huawei to justify their kangaroo court hostage taking of the Huawei CFO and even grants their own ISP and telecom carriers immunity for coorperating with their own spy agencies on domestic spying and masssurveilance on vague pretenses (like "terror threats", which ironically includes leaking information about warrantless masssurveilance of U.S. citizens by the NSA), but some sheep just can't add one and one together.

 

[PeaceGen]

LOL, the US has got to be the most hypocritical power on the planet.

It's okay for the NSA to snoop on its citizens, of course. Bullying institutions to cut ties under threat of losing federal funding says a lot about academic freedom.

If this was coming from a State that hadn't engaged in senseless wars (no WMDs in Iraq, begging Pakistan for a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, failed regime change in Syria, etc.) and did not conduct mass surveillance of its own people, it might have made sense.

Newsflash : not every valid argument (reason) makes it to the frontpages of the mass media.....................

 

[Menthol]

USA is a country that run by lawyers.

In lawyer's logic, for the same thing, it's right for them and wrong for the others.

 

[R Wing]

If you are going to make outlandish claims at least get your facts straight. The FBI watches US citizens..the NSA watches non-citizens.

Nobody here is upset about the NSA listening to other countries communications. Thumbs up to them!

I'm afraid you need to get your facts straight. The entire scandal with the NSA was about its mass surveillance of US citizens on US soil (with telcos like Verizon colluding.) Have you been sleeping under a rock?

Also, under your (flawed) stance --- even if the FBI was doing it (which it also does), that doesn't change my argument. Peace!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I'm afraid you need to get your facts straight. The entire scandal with the NSA was about its mass surveillance of US citizens on US soil (with telcos like Verizon colluding.) Have you been sleeping under a rock?

Also, under your (flawed) stance --- even if the FBI was doing it (which it also does), that doesn't change my argument. Peace!

You mean this:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/the-n-s-a-verizon-scandal
The N.S.A.-Verizon Scandal

On Wednesday night, Glenn Greenwald, of the Guardian, posted a classified order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that everyone should read. It directs a Verizon division, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over “on an ongoing daily basis” the “following tangible things”:

All call detail records or “telephony metadata” created by Verizon for communications
(i) between the United States and abroad; or
(ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.

This would give the National Security Agency millions of phone records. That metadata doesn’t tell the government what was said, but gives it “comprehensive communications routing information,” such as the phone numbers at both ends of the call, equipment codes, the time of the call, and how long it lasted. You can tell a great deal from all that.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Notice the part in red.

Certainly (i) is a no-brainer. I would expect they have been tracking international phone calls for decades. That's pretty basic counter-intelligence work. The NSA doesn't need billion dollar eavesdropping spy satellites for something that simple. I'm sure they can easily record those calls too.

(ii) for the NSA that is simply the ability to quickly cross-reference numbers in the US made by the domestic caller suspected in #1. HOWEVER that's data the FBI would already have access to. Even police can get access to it. Ever watch those movies/tv shows where the police check the phone history records of some murder suspect. Again not unexpected and a well-known ability.

I don't see anything that I would not have already expected them to have or been doing. Nor do I see anything that makes me think they are doing something so unusual that no other country in the world is doing it.

Again nobody in the US is crying because the NSA is eavesdropping on phone calls made in other countries.

 

[xyxmt]

US is scared from competition, but its too late to stop Chinese.

 

[R Wing]

You mean this:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/the-n-s-a-verizon-scandal
The N.S.A.-Verizon Scandal

On Wednesday night, Glenn Greenwald, of the Guardian, posted a classified order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that everyone should read. It directs a Verizon division, Verizon Business Network Services, to turn over “on an ongoing daily basis” the “following tangible things”:

All call detail records or “telephony metadata” created by Verizon for communications
(i) between the United States and abroad; or
(ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.

This would give the National Security Agency millions of phone records. That metadata doesn’t tell the government what was said, but gives it “comprehensive communications routing information,” such as the phone numbers at both ends of the call, equipment codes, the time of the call, and how long it lasted. You can tell a great deal from all that.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Notice the part in red.

Certainly (i) is a no-brainer. I would expect they have been tracking international phone calls for decades. That's pretty basic counter-intelligence work. The NSA doesn't need billion dollar eavesdropping spy satellites for something that simple. I'm sure they can easily record those calls too.

(ii) for the NSA that is simply the ability to quickly cross-reference numbers in the US made by the domestic caller suspected in #1. HOWEVER that's data the FBI would already have access to. Even police can get access to it. Ever watch those movies/tv shows where the police check the phone history records of some murder suspect. Again not unexpected and a well-known ability.

I don't see anything that I would not have already expected them to have or been doing. Nor do I see anything that makes me think they are doing something so unusual that no other country in the world is doing it.

Again nobody in the US is crying because the NSA is eavesdropping on phone calls made in other countries.

You finally said what I wanted you to (loving the patriotic color use, BTW):
I don't see anything that I would not have already expected them to have or been doing. Nor do I see anything that makes me think they are doing something so unusual that no other country in the world is doing it.

This is my entire point. The US loves to criticize other governments for doing exactly what it has been doing for decades (armed intervention on flimsy grounds, supporting dictators when convenient, mass surveillance, assassination without trial including of US citizens, etc.) That's why I love reading the annual Chinese report on US human rights abuses (domestic and foreign.)

Do you really believe that the NSA doesn't have access to your phone calls (NOT metadata, but the actual content of your call) even when SIGINT agencies of random developing countries have the same ability?! Also, there have been leaks/whisteblowing pointing to abilities far deeper than just the Verizon metadata scandal (turning laptop/phone mic/webcam on for LIVE recording even when the devices are powered off, etc.)

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

You finally said what I wanted you to (loving the patriotic color use, BTW):
I don't see anything that I would not have already expected them to have or been doing. Nor do I see anything that makes me think they are doing something so unusual that no other country in the world is doing it.

This is my entire point. The US loves to criticize other governments for doing exactly what it has been doing for decades (armed intervention on flimsy grounds, supporting dictators when convenient, mass surveillance, assassination without trial including of US citizens, etc.) That's why I love reading the annual Chinese report on US human rights abuses (domestic and foreign.)

Do you really believe that the NSA doesn't have access to your phone calls (NOT metadata, but the actual content of your call) even when SIGINT agencies of random developing countries have the same ability?! Also, there have been leaks/whisteblowing pointing to abilities far deeper than just the Verizon metadata scandal (turning laptop/phone mic/webcam on for LIVE recording even when the devices are powered off, etc.)

Of course the NSA can have access to full phone calls. The FBI already has the ability. Gone are the days when some guy would climb to the top of a telephone pole and tap into a wire to listen in on the conversations (like you'd see in the movies) of some criminal enterprise. They can simply punch up a number on a computer and listen in.

One of the SIGINT tasks the NSA does is to listen for specific words in worldwide communications and record those conversations. Once in a while you'll read an article about some warning in some area of the world where there was an "increase in chatter" about some possible attack. This is SIGINT finding words. BTW this isn’t because the whole world is using American communication equipment (most don’t use American equipment) with backdoors built in them. It’s because every time you use any type of device that sends a signal into the air instead of using a wire (cordless phones, cell phones, WIFI, Walkie-talkie, CB radio, keyless car entry, garage door opener, microwave relay stations, international calls using a satellite, etc) it can be listened to by an NSA satellite. And yes I’m sure they are listening to undersea cables too.

Could they also be scanning domestic calls. Sure.

As for turning on/off microphones...well that's a vendor security issue. The NSA isn't the only one doing things like that. Hackers are the ones that find those loopholes.

 

[R Wing]

Of course the NSA can have access to full phone calls. The FBI already has the ability. Gone are the days when some guy would climb to the top of a telephone pole and tap into a wire to listen in on the conversations (like you'd see in the movies) of some criminal enterprise. They can simply punch up a number on a computer and listen in.

One of the SIGINT tasks the NSA does is to listen for specific words in worldwide communications and record those conversations. Once in a while you'll read an article about some warning in some area of the world where there was an "increase in chatter" about some possible attack. This is SIGINT finding words. BTW this isn’t because the whole world is using American communication equipment (most don’t use American equipment) with backdoors built in them. It’s because every time you use any type of device that sends a signal into the air instead of using a wire (cordless phones, cell phones, WIFI, Walkie-talkie, CB radio, keyless car entry, garage door opener, microwave relay stations, international calls using a satellite, etc) it can be listened to by an NSA satellite. And yes I’m sure they are listening to undersea cables too.

Could they also be scanning domestic calls. Sure.

As for turning on/off microphones...well that's a vendor security issue. The NSA isn't the only one doing things like that. Hackers are the ones that find those loopholes.

We are finally on the same page!

As an American, you should be proud of the NSA's SIGINT capabilities. All the rest of the world wants to see is less hypocrisy. If America led the world based on moral leadership (a fraction of its military spending can solve world hunger and a bunch of other issues) by NOT being selective in its hypocritical criticisms of others and invasions (or, rather, invasion justifications, like "dictatorship" and wanting to bring democracy --- nobody falls for that BS anymore), it's leadership position would be solidified further. I think the US needs to focus internally/domestically --- the rates of homelessness, drug abuse, unemployment, lack of new infrastructure, etc., are starting to resemble developing countries more than developed ones. Peace!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

We are finally on the same page!

As an American, you should be proud of the NSA's SIGINT capabilities. All the rest of the world wants to see is less hypocrisy. If America led the world based on moral leadership (a fraction of its military spending can solve world hunger and a bunch of other issues) by NOT being selective in its hypocritical criticisms of others and invasions (or, rather, invasion justifications, like "dictatorship" and wanting to bring democracy --- nobody falls for that BS anymore), it's leadership position would be solidified further. I think the US needs to focus internally/domestically --- the rates of homelessness, drug abuse, unemployment, lack of new infrastructure, etc., are starting to resemble developing countries more than developed ones. Peace!

The US is far from unique in having SIGINT capabilities. At least a dozen countries are doing the exact same thing with their SIGINT satellites.

Not sure why you think we need some special moral leadership that other countries get a free pass for. Why don’t you tell countries like Russia and China to drop their SIGINT and go help their people instead?

What is your point of focusing on the NSA specifically while ignoring everybody else? Why are you giving them all a free pass and saying the NSA is some lone Devil in the sky watching down on a helpless world oppressing people. That’s ridiculous. There’s more than just the US up there listening to your cell phone calls.