Huawei technicians have been helping governments in Africa spy on their political opponents, a new report says

[steven36]

• Huawei technicians helped the Ugandan and Zambian governments spy on their political opponents, leading to their arrest, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• There's no evidence that Huawei or China approved or even knew about the actions of the Huawei employees stationed in Uganda and Zambia. Nothing indicates that the Huawei technology used in the alleged spying was specialized or exclusive, suggesting that any similar technology from any company could be used for the same effect.
• The report comes amid scrutiny from the US toward Huawei based on the risk that China could use Huawei telecoms equipment to spy on the US.

 

 

Huawei employees stationed in Uganda and Zambia have helped the Ugandan and Zambian governments spy on their political opponents, which has led to the opponents' arrests in both countries, the Wall Street Journal reports.

 

In Kampala, Uganda, Huawei employees reportedly helped Uganda's cyber-surveillance unit break into the WhatsApp group belonging to Bobi Wine, a political opponent to the current Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. The Huawei employees used spyware made by an Israeli company to break into the WhatsApp group, which led to Wine's arrest, as well as the arrest of dozens of his supporters.

 

In Zambia, Huawei technicians reportedly helped the government access the phones and Facebook pages belonging to bloggers who oppose Zambian president Edgar Lungu's regime. This allowed the Zambian cyber-surveillance unit to locate the bloggers' locations, which led to their arrest.

 

In both instances in Uganda and Zambia, the Journal's report that Huawei helped those governments to spy on their political opponents were corroborated by senior security officials.

 

It's also said that the Huawei employees used Huawei and other technology to aid the Ugandan and Zambian governments spy and arrest their political opponents.

 

There was no evidence that the Huawei employees who helped the Ugandan and Zambian government allegedly spy on their opponents acted on behalf of Huawei or the Chinese government, nor did Huawei or China know about the Huawei employees' actions, according to the Journal. There was nothing exclusive or specific about the Huawei technology that was used, either, suggesting that any similar technology from any company could have been used to the same effect.

 

Business Insider has requested comment from Huawei, as well as the Ugandan and Zambian government, but did not hear back before publishing. Huawei responded to the Journal's report by outright denying that the company or its employees were involved.

 

Still, the report comes at an inopportune time for Huawei, which faces scrutiny from the US government over fears that Huawei telecoms technology could be used by the Chinese government to spy on the US.

 

In 2018, the White House banned federal agencies and employees from using telecoms equipment from Huawei, to which Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei responded that the company has never been used to spy on behalf of the Chinese government, nor would it comply to a request to do.

 

Source

 

[tivstip]

propaganda to stop huawei rising, everyone can see this, trump taking the money from apple, nothing new

 

usa can go bankrupt if huawei is rising

 

trump is a commercial hitler

 

[steven36]

54 minutes ago, tivstip said:

propaganda to stop huawei rising, everyone can see this, trump taking the money from apple, nothing new

 

usa can go bankrupt if huawei is rising

 

trump is a commercial hitler

 

What you say don't make a bit of sense what Trump is doing  has hurt Apple  witch is made in China as well, as well only vendors  it helped was Samsung  and it helped One Plus  witch is another Chinese Smartphone. You act like huawei  is the only thing made in China ? Huawei and ZTE are about the only products ban in the USA from China .   Most stuff for now that sold in the USA is from China tell they move there factories somewhere else.

 

I don't think none of the Tech companies wanted  a trade war  and many USA companies  depend huawei  to sell stuff  to them . It's not like the Trade war the USA had with Japan  were stuff back then was really made in the USA  . Not hardly anything has been made in the USA  anymore since the early 2000s. And what happens in  Africa  don't have nothing to do with the USA so why blame them?  If  China wanted  to bankrupt the USA they could just sell off all the USA debt .

[tivstip]

4 hours ago, steven36 said:

What you say don't make a bit of sense what Trump is doing  has hurt Apple  witch is made in China as well,

 

Not yet, inform more about this.

[Infinite_Vision]

7 hours ago, steven36 said:

What you say don't make a bit of sense what Trump is doing  has hurt Apple  witch is made in China as well, as well only vendors  it helped was Samsung  and it helped One Plus  witch is another Chinese Smartphone. You act like huawei  is the only thing made in China ? Huawei and ZTE are about the only products ban in the USA from China .   Most stuff for now that sold in the USA is from China tell they move there factories somewhere else.

 

I don't think none of the Tech companies wanted  a trade war  and many USA companies  depend huawei  to sell stuff  to them . It's not like the Trade war the USA had with Japan  were stuff back then was really made in the USA  . Not hardly anything has been made in the USA  anymore since the early 2000s. And what happens in  Africa  don't have nothing to do with the USA so why blame them?  If  China wanted  to bankrupt the USA they could just sell off all the USA debt .

Again, this is not discussing anything political.  This is an economic discussion base on news article.  And it is not saying that any country is bad or anything.  These are actual discussion on trades.  

That's correct.  You're onto something.  But China's holding of US debt is $1.123 trillion and most of the debt that the US government owe is to itself like programs such as social security,medicare,etc.  The US currently has $23 Trillion in debt. 

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp

 

This is a better way of looking at things.  Trade in balance or how much each country buy from each other.  From an economic standpoint, the US buys more good and services.  If the US stop buying like two years worth of goods then they are in trouble.  As we seeing in the news, manufacturing are moving out of China due to higher labor costs. 

 

Source: https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-china-trade-deficit-causes-effects-and-solutions-3306277

 

Here is something interesting to read and this is why the US government is wreary about using tech from the land of the Dragon. 

Source:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-09/new-evidence-of-hacked-supermicro-hardware-found-in-u-s-telecom

More source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies

[steven36]

30 minutes ago, Infinite_Vision said:

 

That's correct.  You're onto something.  But China's holding of US debt is $1.123 trillion and most of the debt that the US government owe is to itself like programs such as social security,medicare,etc.  The US currently has $23 Trillion in debt. 

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp

 

Here is something interesting to read and this is why the US government is wreary about using tech from the land of the Dragon. 

Source:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-09/new-evidence-of-hacked-supermicro-hardware-found-in-u-s-telecom

China don't want to sell the debt just yet , but if the USA  stop  buying  from them and making them strong they can sell it off and make the dollar collapse.

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-china-how-much-does-it-own-3306355

 

But they just can wait it out tell the USA gets a new President and cut a deal with them one thing  Trump don't have on his side is time ,but China have all the time in the world because the person in charge stays in power . If they sold the debt then Trump would get what he wants but  it want be the way he wants it, the dollar will become weak and people want have no choice but to make stuff in USA again because stuff from other places will be to expensive to import.

[Infinite_Vision]

36 minutes ago, steven36 said:

China don't want to sell the debt just yet , but if the USA  stop  buying  from them and making them strong they can sell it off and make the dollar collapse.

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-china-how-much-does-it-own-3306355

 

But they just can wait it out tell the USA gets a new President and cut a deal with them one thing  Trump don't have on his side time ,but china have all the time in the world because the person in charge stays in power . If they sold the debt then Trump get what he wants but  it want be the way he wants the dollar will become weak and people want have no choice but to make stuff in USA again because stuff from other places will be to expensive to import.

 

I definitely agree on your intake on the subject.  But if you read the history of the land of the Dragon and it is very interesting.   I mean from the past, dynasty comes and goes.  What keeps an emperor in power is if his subjects have enough food and shelter.  If the people begin to realize that if those things are not met, you can bet that there will be noise in the land of the Dragon.  The land of the Dragon are made up of various ethnicities.  People just want to work and help their family.  They want to improve their economic standing and stuff.  And no Karlstorn, we're not talking about overthrowing of a government.   I'm talking about the history of the land of the Dragon.  Rich history with many innovation given to the modern world.  But it is also filled with turbulent times when the normal folk could not get the basic necessities in life and they revolted as I have read throughout their history.  A good example is HK.  What about Tibet?  What about Uyghurs?  What I'm trying to say is that both systems have it strengths and weaknesses.  And there are many or different dynamic involve in each country.  There are pros and cons to both systems.  

 

Steven36, your last sentence is spot on.  Or they can make it some where else that doesn't have tariff from.  I think we might be heading back to the gold standard.   

[Karlston]

1 hour ago, Infinite_Vision said:

And no Karlstorn, we're not talking about overthrowing of a government.

 

Yes I know, but thank you anyway for pointing it out. No more.

 

And... at least spell my name correctly!