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How China Is Using Huawei-Made Cameras to Spy on the African Union Headquarters

56 points by known 6y ago

tomohawk 6y ago
> AU technicians discovered that the building’s Huawei-provided servers were daily exporting their data to Shanghai, and that the walls of the Chinese-built headquarters were peppered with listening devices. > Chinese companies—many of which are state-owned, all of which are legally obliged to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party on intelligence matters—have built at least 186 government buildings in Africa, including presidential residences, ministries of foreign affairs, and parliament buildings. Huawei has built more than 70 percent of the continent’s 4G networks and at least fourteen intra-governmental ICT networks, including a data center in Zambia that houses the entirety of the government’s records.
vagrantJin 6y ago
Manure is infinitely more valuable than the AU. Not to mention its current president/chair. African politics is almost child-like which makes Europe and any country worth its salt giggle with glee. The expression -"like taking candy from a baby" - is apt. Therefore what china is doing is nothing new or special. US and EU do the same thing with heads of state that dont agree with their policies suddenly have civil wars with farmer's sons and military coups or the famous yet tragic "accident" Its tiring.
- MichaelZuo 6y ago
  Although every country does have factions that want to screw everyone else the moment they get the chance, thankfully every country also has people, often in substantial positions, with longer ranging foresight than that. Though of course the proportions varies with time, culture, level of development, norms, history, dogma, politics, etc., across the globe. In China’s case where there are thousands of people in positions of substantial authority due to its size, with hundreds joining those ranks every year, it is credible that a few would seek short term advantages over all other considerations. The variability of human nature all but guarantees it. Hopefully the proportion will decline in the future, at the very least the long term self interest of the other folks will be a countervailing force.
- TechnoTimeStop 6y ago
  what everyone wants hacker news to turn into : Chinese political spam.
  - Fjolsvith 6y ago
    it scrubs fairly well that kind of topic, positive or negative.
freebuju 6y ago
This is the cost of doing business with China. More and more African governments continue to look to the Big Red for development loans. These intertwined interests lead to compromised decisions like these. Favour the recommended Chinese corp for your tech at the behest of your nation's security. It also doesn't help that Huawei's tech is considerably cheaper than other market offerings.
- sirmoveon 6y ago
  Isn't that how capitalism works in any part of the world anyways? I hate to sound pro China but some stuff I read around is just hypocritical.
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    1) First of all, skip the whataboutism regarding the CCP. It makes you a useful idiot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot 2) Second, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is different than capitalism - it's communist colonialism. The CCP is using money from US capital markets to massively bribe foreign officials to sell out their countries, with projects that are not affordable and often not useful - called debt traps. In the case of Africa, China is also positioning armies in some of those countries. In countries with ports, it's having the host nation pay for future docking facilities for China's navy, which is the largest in the world by number of ships. In the case of Greece and some other European countries, it's buying the largest ports and then telling the government to vote China's way in the UN, or else. In the case of the Himalayan neighbors, it's providing financing while "leasing" vast areas of their countries, and encroaching on their head waters. All of the above has already happened. It's a form of global colonialism without firing a shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBQ148KPsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBQ148KPsg The US' fear is that the BRI ports will be used to store container nuclear bombs, then one day the CCP will announce they have "mined" the world's largest ports. Mao: "Hide our strength, bide our time."
  - freebuju 6y ago
    My point was about how business interests between China and Africa lead to situations that put African states in compromised positions. You simply cannot put your trust esp in networking equipment in the Chinese government. Business or not. It's a terrible recipe for disaster as the AU discovered.
mensetmanusman 6y ago
Very useful for blackmail when there are cameras everywhere.
aaron695 6y ago
> the walls of the Chinese-built headquarters were peppered with listening devices. Like what the USA and Australia did to China in the 80's in this one story - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-08/the-chinese-embassy-bugging-controversy/5079148 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-08/the-chinese-embassy-b... Or when Australia did it to rip of one of the worlds poorest countries - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%E2%80%93East_Timor_spying_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%E2%80%93East_Timor_s...
- dokem 6y ago
  The problem really is that Africa isn’t in a position to do it to anyone else.
elia_is_me 6y ago
Chinese PRISM? Interesting but I cant believe they could have such intelligence.

56 points by known 6y ago

> AU technicians discovered that the building’s Huawei-provided servers were daily exporting their data to Shanghai, and that the walls of the Chinese-built headquarters were peppered with listening devices. > Chinese companies—many of which are state-owned, all of which are legally obliged to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party on intelligence matters—have built at least 186 government buildings in Africa, including presidential residences, ministries of foreign affairs, and parliament buildings. Huawei has built more than 70 percent of the continent’s 4G networks and at least fourteen intra-governmental ICT networks, including a data center in Zambia that houses the entirety of the government’s records.

vagrantJin 6y ago

Manure is infinitely more valuable than the AU. Not to mention its current president/chair. African politics is almost child-like which makes Europe and any country worth its salt giggle with glee. The expression -"like taking candy from a baby" - is apt. Therefore what china is doing is nothing new or special. US and EU do the same thing with heads of state that dont agree with their policies suddenly have civil wars with farmer's sons and military coups or the famous yet tragic "accident" Its tiring.

MichaelZuo 6y ago
Although every country does have factions that want to screw everyone else the moment they get the chance, thankfully every country also has people, often in substantial positions, with longer ranging foresight than that. Though of course the proportions varies with time, culture, level of development, norms, history, dogma, politics, etc., across the globe. In China’s case where there are thousands of people in positions of substantial authority due to its size, with hundreds joining those ranks every year, it is credible that a few would seek short term advantages over all other considerations. The variability of human nature all but guarantees it. Hopefully the proportion will decline in the future, at the very least the long term self interest of the other folks will be a countervailing force.
TechnoTimeStop 6y ago
what everyone wants hacker news to turn into : Chinese political spam.
- Fjolsvith 6y ago
  it scrubs fairly well that kind of topic, positive or negative.

freebuju 6y ago

This is the cost of doing business with China. More and more African governments continue to look to the Big Red for development loans. These intertwined interests lead to compromised decisions like these. Favour the recommended Chinese corp for your tech at the behest of your nation's security. It also doesn't help that Huawei's tech is considerably cheaper than other market offerings.

sirmoveon 6y ago
Isn't that how capitalism works in any part of the world anyways? I hate to sound pro China but some stuff I read around is just hypocritical.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  1) First of all, skip the whataboutism regarding the CCP. It makes you a useful idiot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot 2) Second, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is different than capitalism - it's communist colonialism. The CCP is using money from US capital markets to massively bribe foreign officials to sell out their countries, with projects that are not affordable and often not useful - called debt traps. In the case of Africa, China is also positioning armies in some of those countries. In countries with ports, it's having the host nation pay for future docking facilities for China's navy, which is the largest in the world by number of ships. In the case of Greece and some other European countries, it's buying the largest ports and then telling the government to vote China's way in the UN, or else. In the case of the Himalayan neighbors, it's providing financing while "leasing" vast areas of their countries, and encroaching on their head waters. All of the above has already happened. It's a form of global colonialism without firing a shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBQ148KPsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBQ148KPsg The US' fear is that the BRI ports will be used to store container nuclear bombs, then one day the CCP will announce they have "mined" the world's largest ports. Mao: "Hide our strength, bide our time."
- freebuju 6y ago
  My point was about how business interests between China and Africa lead to situations that put African states in compromised positions. You simply cannot put your trust esp in networking equipment in the Chinese government. Business or not. It's a terrible recipe for disaster as the AU discovered.

mensetmanusman 6y ago

Very useful for blackmail when there are cameras everywhere.

aaron695 6y ago

> the walls of the Chinese-built headquarters were peppered with listening devices. Like what the USA and Australia did to China in the 80's in this one story - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-08/the-chinese-embassy-bugging-controversy/5079148 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-08/the-chinese-embassy-b... Or when Australia did it to rip of one of the worlds poorest countries - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%E2%80%93East_Timor_spying_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%E2%80%93East_Timor_s...

dokem 6y ago
The problem really is that Africa isn’t in a position to do it to anyone else.

elia_is_me 6y ago

Chinese PRISM? Interesting but I cant believe they could have such intelligence.