Interesting isn’t it?
The commies being woolly eyed about their “fatherland” making overtures on India. While they award massive contracts to Chinese Telecom Companies. China remains in the storm for it’s massive human rights violations/ the big Internet majors who are carrying out their seditious censorship games and what have you.
Now comes another disturbing revelations from Rajeev Srinivasan. In his post on
Rediff he writes:
Before the First Gulf War, it is reported that the US sold computer printers to the Iraqi military. To the casual observer, these printers appeared to be quite normal. However, they were doctored up with a Trojan Horse, a special GPS chip which, when remotely triggered, could broadcast its location accurately……So there is a legitimate question as to whether the import of commercial goods could have significant side-effects based on trap-doors left in them by a manufacturer, especially one as jingoistic and prickly as China, where the army has been preparing for a ‘total war’ involving all possible weapons.
Now this is indeed disturbing on several counts. Majorly because the frigging blinking “modem” on my desktop is Huawei. And none the better. It remains like a piece of solidified crap which has lost it’s stink but not the misshapen form. That’s another matter that I was forced to have this modem from BSNL.
The more worrying aspect is the huge amount of Chinese telecom equipment which can be used for espionage. How? Some one would have to enlighten me on the technical details. But it’s possible.
Why favour the Chinese in the first case? What is so revolutionary about their products? I’d agree about the pricing part (being lower than others), but prices have been manipulated. They have been massively subsidised by the Chinese military and Government.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry has been marked for being read with caution because it is possibly biased. I won’t be surprised to know that it’s been written in by Chinese trawls or outsourced to Indian writers!
Huawei was sued by Cisco in 2003 for directly cloning both Cisco hardware and software. The case was proven, and has now been settled. Hmm. It doesn’t augur well for a company that’s a “leader” in telecommunications equipment as per the Wikipedia entry (assuming it to be on the face value).
Why then, this post on Chinese and the most visible face of Chinese equipment manufacturer in India? The answer may well lie in Rajeev’s write up. He writes:
China has an avowed ‘string of pearls’ strategy with which is has striven to — largely successfully — contain India with bases at Gwadar in Balochistan, the Cocos Islands in Myanmar, and an attempt to lease to an island or two in the Maldives.
The crown jewel in this is a low-hanging fruit that has fallen into the Chinese lap, as it were: the port of Vizhinjam at Trivandrum, which the Kerala government has contracted out to a consortium consisting largely of Chinese companies. One or more of the Chinese firms is owned by the Chinese government
If this isn’t a monumental stupidity on part of the Government of the day, then nothing else is. The corpse worshippers are good for nothing and would lead this nation to ruin.
This news is disturbing.
I am indian and my modem is chinese…
Is the chinese army / intellegence listening to my bedroom conversations?
-Sharman
No the chinese army is not..it is already overstretched listening to it’s own billion population and not suceeding very well at it.
China is fast becoming manufacturing hub for the worlds goods.
I would not bother with trojans in equipment as it only raises the cost of what is already on a razor thin margin. Your anecdote about printers is just that, hardly applicable in the majority of cases. You might worry more about espionage in that case, much more effective.
What you might point out instead is that these devices can be compromised by a competent hacker from anywhere in the world (assuming they are hooked to the net).
Note that i said competent, this is not script kiddie stuff, this is dedicated ppl who learn the ins & outs of equipment to the point where its vulnerabilities are closely guarded secrets amongst people of this ilk. Let me point out that any telecoms equipment regardless of it manufacturer anywhere will have flaws like this. This is why the worlds premier intelligence agencies disconnect machines with any senstive info and have thier own networks. Still leaks happen but the risk is reduced.
The Chinese army snooping on it’s citizens? I believe it’s some other agency but reporting to the army instead. Though, I am not sure about the details.
The problem with the Chinese equipment is that they are pushing their own standards which can become the “de facto” standard in the coming times. Perhaps this is a fall out of the massive investments in higher education and China is churning out Phd’s faster than we can type. However, China remains much behind the design aspect or creating anything original except for manufacturing lies. If the standards are ratified and more telecom companies buy that out, we would have to pay roylaties for the same. Look at Qualcomm. CDMA / BREW platform earns them huge payments. Why can’t Indians design something of their own?
You are right about the manufacturing hub. Primarily because it’s traditional agriculture has shrunk; vast migration of rural population to urban areas after the curbs were lifted recently (around 1980′s I guess). They have no choice except to drive up the manufacturing.
As for the hardware hacking, it’s definitely a specialised field. I did read something about it long time back but the details elude me.
The point here is (and Rajeev’s article on Rediff)- is the gradual encirclement of the Chinese on our borders (the string of pearls theory which is true) and the gradual entry of Chinese in the vital sectors. Shipping as mentioned in Rajeev’s post and Telecom as mentioned here.
If you would have read about the trojans in the printers- they were armed with GPS chips- when activated, they gave a clear cut position of the ships ; primarily this gave a massive leeway to US to establish it’s air superiorty. Bugging devices are choc a block and it’s very easy to snoop on conversations on GSM networks. Nay, even easy to track down any user.
Having Chinese on the soil makes it worse. Further, I had mentioned in the previous posts that Huawei was embroiled in espionage activities- roughly 2001-02. That it should escape attention from media is a MAJOR blunder.
GSM chips in printers, chalk that down to inept military in Iraq not doing due dilligence in the first place, but i have a feeling this is an urban myth.
“de facto” std is reaching imo, they manufacture to spec, these specs are usually established by whoever makes the tech first, is fastest to market and establishes themselves. The chinese can come up with their own stds but they would be shooting themselves in foot when they had no one outside thier borders to connect to. Ppl will take notice when they start creaitng stuff that exceeds the status quo.
As you say they have probs coming up with original stuff..the japs were in that same boat not so long ago, no one’s shouting bloody treason about japanese tech in leading consumer devices, saying why can’t we do it better.
A lot of this Chinese bogey man is not credible to me at all. The only communist aspect of China is its political sytem, its economical system has long switched into capitalist mode. If you ask me, all this extra controls they want at thier borders sound like the death throes of an anachronistic movement. They will slowly transtion into a democratic system and do it peacfully.
Will you still be as paranoid about Chinese tech when that happens
PS. i’m having probs submitting stuff in opera with the new setup u got here, haivng to resort to IE to get this in..the horror !!!
Dude, you do make a pertinent point about the standards. Agreed to a point.
However, it’s about “tactical diplomacy” and establishing your tech across the world. Look at South Korea. They developed their “own standards” after they felt the pinch of huge outflows of royalty to Qualcomm. I covered this aspect in an earlier post.
They don’t have any problems to connect, as far as I know.
As for the Japs, I do have issues with the way they bundle their technology here, in the garb of “development funds”. Part of it is diplomacy, partly kick backs and partly to establish their superiorty. For example, the whole Delhi Metro including the rakes have been designed by them in “collaboration”. While Metro is awesome for this country, for times to come, we are dependent on Japanese. Similarly, we love to make tall claims about Space programme; little realising it’s Soviet tech mostly behind the flying missiles. Interestingly, our own Mr Kalam had huge project over runs and costs during his tenure and he basically achieved very little.
But it’s out of scope here.
I’d be still “paranoid” about Chinese anyday. In the great gamble of Geopolitics, Chinese are leaving us out on every count. They are shrewd and know that Indian politicians are corrupt and venal. Hence, they can hoist their agenda on us. Agreed, much of the “development” in China has come in after they reversed Mao’s policies, but they remain wedded to Communism. I really doubt whether they would transition to “democracy” as we know it. Russia broke up in violent protests and formed CIS. China is facing a huge unrest with the population; they are quelling the popular revolts. I forget the name of the province (Nanjiang?) where the Muslim seperatists have been demanding a seperate “home land”. (What else is new about them?). There is growing chasm between the income divides in both rural and urban population.
Indeed, we have been wrongly fed with notional democracy all around; but in real terms, the freedom to make things happen around us are limited.
This is of course, going off track. If we really want to safeguard our interests, we need to advocate a strong “Anti China” policy; engage them in the high seas (their navy is in pits), re engage the autonomy of Tibet and press for early resolution and better integrate the North East in the mainstream India.
As for Opera, which version are you using? Never had any problem here. I am Opera 9 beta (build 236)- works fine as a fiddle. I guess the older versions less than 8 might run in the trouble. Infact, never had a problem with major websites, except perhaps Gmail. It’s still has a quirky behaviour with Opera. The news groups and forums tell me that it’s Gmail code thats to be blamed. The newer versions (more than 8.54) should work fine.
“While Metro is awesome for this country, for times to come, we are dependent on Japanese.”
Glad you brought this up, as i only thought about it after i hit submit, wanted to point out what a success this “collaboration” has been for Delhi. Sore point being the one in BLR is yet to get off the grnd. On again, off again leaving the impression that Kanadigas are not as assertive as delhites.
As for debts, think back to the decades after independence, when we were receving aid. The balance of payments was managed quite well, with out much debt to suceeding generations or selling the country short. In fact it was managed too well, that it only opened up as late as 1992, robbing a generation of what might have been.
The Chinese opened up 14 yrs earlier. This is the lead they have. And as you mention they had a leader who handicapped them better than any foreign power could have. I feel they will have a similar transition like former Warsaw pact countries, no major turmoil, old just fades away and makes way for the new.
We might not have the leaders now as we did then, but fiscally speaking this country has manged fairly well in the past. I see no reason to doubt this in future “collaboration” projects.
“If we really want to safeguard our interests, we need to advocate a strong “Anti China” policy; engage them in the high seas (their navy is in pits), re engage the autonomy of Tibet and press for early resolution and better integrate the North East in the mainstream India.”
I bet the yanks (as well as other arms dealers) would love for this to happen. I think we asserted ourself in ’97, sent a clear message to everyone what we were capable of. Given the way the armed forces have been spending in the last 5 yrs, i have no doubt your wish will come true. We are in the top 5 as far as arms acquirement goes. Why do all these foreign leaders shuttle back and forth so often as they have in the last 5 yrs.
Still on Opera 7.24, not gone to 8 yet, let alone 9..thinking it was not as good as 7. A preview button is sorely missing here, too hard to catch typos the way u have it setup.
Hmm, some factual inaccuracies here.
Except for the Orion PC-3 and couple of some bombs, we have mercifully limited our exposure to American arms. Otherwise, our main solid support is Russian.
Yanks are not too happy the way things are going, specially with the Shanghai Cooperation (China Russia) who are collaborating big time on Oil. Indeed, they are actively courting Uzbekistan for it’s Uranium and Oil and Gas reserves. But this is altogether a different story.
The central discussion then comes to whether it was right to open up our economy. Yes, it was precipitated during the 92 crisis, but the way, Indian Govt. has been selling off is despisable. I remain opposed to 74% FDI in telecom and Hutch has already circumvented this hassle.
By the way, Yanks and Chinese are supplying arms to Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar big time.
Sad, you haven’t shifted to a better version. You are exposing yourself to secuirty risks. The stable version of Opera 8.54 should do you good and a vast improvement over the previous versions. With 9, they have re worked the rendering engine and it’s awesome.
I guess you are on Windows. So it shouldn’t be difficult to make a shift. Just make a back up of your bookmarks/ PoP mail (if any) and it should work up in a jiffy. With 9, there is a major shift towards GUI. For example, widgets and adding engines. Rollickly cool. They are polishing it, so well. IE Sucks. But still better option would be to use Firefox.
Give me some time; I’d install the preview plug in. Just too busy these days with Surgery….my first love.
“Sad, you haven’t shifted to a better version. You are exposing yourself to secuirty risks. The stable version of Opera 8.54 should do you good and a vast improvement over the previous versions.”
Ok i made the shift to 8.54 and its a nice improvement from 7.2
Much faster, now to see whether it gobbles up memory like the last one, usually had to restart it after a few days cos 300MB of RAM would be gone.
But thanks for the reminder, had to bite the bullet sooner or later, kept putting it off.
I’ll leave 9 for later, till it gets more stable.
No, it isn’t a memory hog! You would notice the preview thingy added here too. I was wondering what took it so long to make it happen. I guess, Sushubh effect!
You are not using Firefox that it would consume gobs of memory. Neh. The version 9 beta is around the corner and you’d love it for the implementation of widgets et al.
I plan to write up a follow up post on Chinese and perhaps look at the issue in a little more depth. This merits more attention that I have been able to do it here in the present post.
“You would notice the preview thingy added here too. I was wondering what took it so long to make it happen. I guess, Sushubh effect!”
What preview thingy ?
i was about to say ..and scroll down whoops..
..real time preview …nice
preview does not work for registered members of the blog. boo boo.