Huawei has been considered a suspected tool of the Chinese government for political purposes for quite some time. The electronics company from the Far East is said to be particularly active in the field of espionage. After all, it is not by chance that the sale of the devices is banned in the US. These accusations, which have been floating in the air for years, now seem to be getting a strong tailwind. For example, a presentation on the company’s website made it clear that it was developing customized surveillance technology.
Technology for forced labor camps
Actually, Huawei is known first and foremost for its fancy smartphones – in our climes, at least. For the US government, the company has been a red rag for quite some time. However, the opinion about the Chinese company could also change in this country if the accusations that have now been made public are true. Huawei is said to have actively helped with the technical features of Chinese forced labor and re-education camps. But you should obviously not only be afraid of the hardware from Huawei if you are a prisoner in such a camp. The PowerPoint also reveals a variety of ways to specifically monitor conventional customers. These findings now put the electronics company in a completely different light. After all, this is the first time that there is solid evidence.
Has Huawei lied?
Now, of course, one can speculate whether the company was consulted as part of the arms race between the US and China. But this could only be underscored if Huawei had really only recently entered the surveillance technology field. Again, the contents of the presentation speak a very different language. The 3,000-page pamphlet not only shows that the company is at the forefront of espionage. On top of that, it can be read out that this has already been the case since 2014. Thus, the electronics company can rightly be accused of making false statements in the past. After all, Huawei always absolved itself of accusations of cooperating with other Chinese partners in the field of surveillance technology.
Specialized voice recognition and other products
One example of Huawei’s efforts in the area of spy technology is certainly special voice recognition. The company probably wanted to develop this in order to strengthen China’s national security. If you think of funny assistants like Siri and Alexa when you think of voice recognition, you will have to take off your rose-colored glasses. It is much more likely to be software that is designed to enable the interception of telephone calls. But that was not the end of the story. In the future, the company would like to further expand its branch of security products. In particular, the production of surveillance cameras is in focus.
