China wants American tech companies to be “secure and controllable”

Earlier this year, Russia started requiring technology companies like Google and Twitter to store data on Russian users within Russia itself, not overseas, all in the name of “national security” and all that jazz. What that really means is that Russia wants to ensure that even foreign technology companies will have to open themselves up to government spying, and now China appears to following suit. According to reports, China has been trying to get American tech companies to pledge not to harm its national security and make sure their products are “secure and controllable.”

China is asking some U.S. technology firms to directly pledge their commitment to contentious policies that could require them to turn user data and intellectual property over to the government, The New York Times reported. Citing unidentified sources, the report said Beijing had distributed a document to some U.S. firms earlier this summer asking them to promise they would not harm China’s national security and would store Chinese user data within the country. The NYT report, which comes just ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the United States, did not identify which companies had been asked to make the pledge. The document also asked the companies that their products be “secure and controllable”, a phrase that industry groups said could be used to force companies to build so-called back doors that would allow third-party access to systems, it said. Officials at the Cyberspace Administration of China did not respond to a faxed request seeking comment. Sources told Reuters last month that China had resumed work on a set of banking cyber security regulations it suspended earlier this year.