CFR China Expert: US Tech Firms Should Worry About Beijing's New Anti-Terror Law

blottsie writes: In an interview with the Daily Dot on Tuesday, Adam Segal, director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program explained what China's new anti-terrorism law contains, what aspects of it remain uncertain, and how China's interest in encrypted technology fits into its longtime strategy of regulating speech within its borders. On the subject of Apple and Chinese relations he says: "We seem to be on a road of eventual confrontation between the Chinese government and Apple. Apple may have to make a decision about what it’s going to do to remain in the China market like lots of other companies. So far, it hasn’t been explicitly laid out that way. The Chinese government hasn’t said, 'We’re not going to allow end-to-end [encryption],' but that clearly seems to be the trend. I’m sure that U.S. tech companies that are providing [end-to-end encryption] are beginning to think that they may be facing a 'high noon at the O.K. Corral' kind of moment."

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[Tokolosh]

The Chinese will wait until the US, UK and Australia implement this first, then will activate their own rules.

Simple solution

[sunderland56]

- create a new encryption algorithm with a government backdoor
- ship it in builds destined for China, and make it the default
- don't ship it anywhere else
- now nobody outside of China is made insecure, *plus* savvy people in China can just disable it
- profit!