Chinese companies have made every submission to UN on standards in past three years, Financial Times reports [the link may be paywalled]. From the report: Chinese companies have made every submission to the UN for international standards on surveillance technology in the past three years, according to documents reviewed by the Financial Times that show their rising dominance in the field. The UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which has 200 member states and establishes common global specifications for technology, has received 20 standards proposals since 2016 from Chinese companies including China Telecom, ZTE, Huawei and surveillance camera giants Hikvision and Dahua.

The majority of the proposals relate to how footage from facial recognition cameras and recordings by audio surveillance devices are stored and analysed, and were submitted to a section of the ITU where experts say representation from European and US organisations is exceptionally light. Half of the standards have already been approved, even though concerns are rising about how Chinese companies are gaining access to the personal data of individuals around the world.

dryriver writes: The 2010s were not necessarily the greatest decade to live through. AAA computer games were not only DRM'd and internet tethered to death but became increasingly formulaic and pay-to-win driven, and poor quality console ports pissed off PC gamers. Forced software subscriptions for major software products you could previously buy became a thing. Personal privacy went out the window in ways too numerous to list, with lawmakers failing on many levels to regulate the tech, data-mining and internet advertising companies in any meaningful way. Severe security vulnerabilities were found in hundreds of different tech products, from Intel CPUs to baby monitors and internet-connected doorbells. Thousands of tech products shipped with microphones, cameras, and internet connectivity integration that couldn't be switched off with an actual hardware switch. Many electronics products became harder or impossible to repair yourself. Printed manuals coming with tech products became almost non-existent. Hackers, scammers, ransomwarers and identity thieves caused more mayhem than ever before. Troll farms, click farms and fake news factories damaged the integrity of the internet as an information source. Tech companies and media companies became afraid of pissing off the Chinese government.

Windows turned into a big piece of spyware. Intel couldn't be bothered to innovate until AMD Ryzen came along. Nvidia somehow took a full decade to make really basic realtime raytracing happen, even though smaller GPU maker Imagination had done it years earlier with a fraction of the budget, and in a mobile GPU to boot. Top-of-the-line smartphones became seriously expensive. Censorship and shadow banning on the once-more-open internet became a thing. Easily-triggered people trying to muzzle other people on social media became a thing. The quality of popular music and music videos went steadily downhill. Star Wars went to shit after Disney bought it, as did the Star Trek films. And mainstream cinema turned into an endless VFX-heavy comic book movies, remakes/reboots and horror movies fest. In many ways, television was the biggest winner of the 2010s, with many new TV shows with film-like production values being made. The second winner may be computer hardware that delivered more storage/memory/performance per dollar than ever before.

To the question: What, dear Slashdotters, will the 2020s bring us? Will things get better in tech and other things relevant to nerds, or will they get worse?

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: For those following Huawei's substantial rise over the past several years, it'll come as no surprise that the Chinese government played an important role in fostering the hardware maker. Even so, the actual numbers behind the ascent are still a bit jaw-dropping. Huawei reportedly had "access to as much as $75 billion in state support," according to a piece published by The Wall Street Journal on Christmas Day. That massive figure is culled from poring over various forms, including grants and tax breaks. Huawei, for its part, isn't denying any government support, but said in response that what it received was "small and non-material," in line with the usual variety of grants awarded to tech startups and companies.

Per WSJ's accounting of public records, Huawei got around $46 billion in loans and other support, coupled with $25 billion in tax cuts used to accelerate tech advances. There's also a billion or two here and there for things like land discounts and grants. At the very least, it seems China had a vested interest in the rise of a hardware company that could go head to head with the likes of Apple and Samsung. Certainly it's not unheard of that a government would foster some growth in the form of grants, but there's a clear question of how much.

The Pentagon is urging US telecoms equipment makers to join forces on 5G technology in a drive to offer a homegrown alternative to China's Huawei. From a report: Lisa Porter, who oversees research and development at the defence department, has asked US companies to develop open-source 5G software -- in effect opening up their technology to potential rivals -- warning they risk becoming obsolete if they do not. Making 5G tech open-source could threaten American companies such as Cisco or Oracle, the biggest American suppliers of telecoms network equipment. This technology -- known as open radio access networks -- would allow telecoms carriers to buy off-the-shelf hardware from a range of vendors, rather than bespoke systems. US officials hope it will provide an alternative to Huawei. The Chinese equipment maker dominates the market, but many in Washington believe it poses a threat to US national security.

China has ordered that all foreign computer equipment and software be removed from government offices and public institutions within three years, the Financial Times reports. hackingbear writes: The government directive is likely to be a blow to US multinational companies like HP, Dell and Microsoft and mirrors attempts by Washington to limit the use of Chinese technology, as the trade war between the countries turns into a tech cold war. The Trump administration banned US companies from doing business with Chinese Chinese telecommunications company Huawei earlier this year and in May, Google, Intel and Qualcomm announced they would freeze cooperation with Huawei. By excluding China from western know-how, the Trump administration has made it clear that the real battle is about which of the two economic superpowers has the technological edge for the next two decades. This is the first known public directive from Beijing setting specific targets limiting China's use of foreign technology, though it is part a wider move within China to increase its reliance on domestic technology.

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has launched a legal challenge to a decision by US regulators to classify it as a national security threat. From a report: It comes after the US Federal Communications Commission put curbs on rural mobile providers using a $8.5bn government fund to buy Huawei equipment. The firm said evidence that it was a threat to security "does not exist." The move is the latest in a series of challenges between Huawei and the US. The company has asked the US Court of Appeal to overturn the decision. Speaking at a news conference at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, the company's chief legal officer, Song Liuping, said: "The US government has never presented real evidence to show that Huawei is a national security threat. That's because this evidence does not exist."

Roberto Escobar, brother of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar, has announced a foldable smartphone that is "very difficult to break" thanks to the screen's "special type of plastic." The Escobar Fold 1, as it is called, significantly undercuts Samsung's Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X with a price of only $349. Neowin reports: While all the foldable phones announced so far have a price tag of at least $1,500+, the Escobar Fold 1 will be available from only $349 which includes free shipping and a case as well. It will be sold unlocked and work on all compatible networks worldwide. This makes it cheaper than other non-foldable flagship smartphones available in the market right now.

The drug lord's brother has been able to price the phone so low by cutting out the middlemen like networks and retailers. He is also preparing to file a $30 billion class-action lawsuit against Apple for scamming people and wants the company to "give some of their illegal profits back to the people." Like the Huawei Mate X, the Escobar Fold can be unfolded to turn it into a tablet with a screen size of 7.8-inches. The expanded AMOLED display has a 4:3 aspect ratio and an FHD+ resolution. The design language is different from the Samsung Galaxy Fold which features two separate displays, one of which folds.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: Huawei's latest phone, which it unveiled in September -- the Mate 30 with a curved display and wide-angle cameras that competes with Apple's iPhone 11 -- contained no U.S. parts, according to an analysis by UBS and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, a Japanese technology lab that took the device apart to inspect its insides. In May, the Trump administration banned U.S. shipments to Huawei as trade tensions with Beijing escalated. That move stopped companies like Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. from exporting chips to the company, though some shipments of parts resumed over the summer after companies determined they weren't affected by the ban.

While Huawei hasn't stopped using American chips entirely, it has reduced its reliance on U.S. suppliers or eliminated U.S. chips in phones launched since May (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), including the company's Y9 Prime and Mate smartphones, according to Fomalhaut's teardown analysis. Similar inspections by iFixit and Tech Insights Inc., two other firms that take apart phones to inspect components, have come to similar conclusions. With the Mate 30, audio chips supplied in older versions came from Cirrus Logic. In the newer Mate 30 models, chips were provided by NXP Semiconductors NV, a Dutch chip maker, according to Fomalhaut. Power amplifiers provided by Qorvo or Skyworks were replaced with chips from HiSilicon, Huawei's in-house chip design firm, the teardown analysis showed. A Huawei spokesman said it is the company's "clear preference to continue to integrate and buy components from U.S. supply partners. If that proves impossible because of the decisions of the U.S. government, we will have no choice but to find alternative supply from non-U.S. sources."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation requiring all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software. Reuters reports: The law, which will come into force on July 1 next year, has been met with resistance by some electronics retailers, who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them. The law has been presented as a way to help Russian IT firms compete with foreign companies and spare consumers from having to download software upon purchasing a new device. The country's mobile phone market is dominated by foreign companies including Apple, Samsung and Huawei. The legislation signed by Putin said the government would come up with a list of Russian applications that would need to be installed on the different devices.

"American tech companies are getting the go-ahead to resume business with Chinese smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co., but it may be too late," reports the Wall Street Journal.

Huawei is just building its smartphones without U.S. chips. Huawei's latest phone, which it unveiled in September -- the Mate 30 with a curved display, telephone and wide-angle cameras that competes with Apple Inc.'s iPhone 11 -- contained no U.S. parts, according to an analysis by UBS and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, a Japanese technology lab that took the device apart to inspect its insides...

While Huawei hasn't stopped using American chips entirely, it has reduced its reliance on U.S. suppliers or eliminated U.S. chips in phones launched since May, including the company's Y9 Prime and Mate smartphones, according to Fomalhaut's teardown analysis. Similar inspections by iFixit and Tech Insights Inc., two other firms that take apart phones to inspect components, have come to similar conclusions.

hackingbear writes: The RISC-V Foundation, which sets standards for the open-sourced CPU architecture and controls who can use the RISC-V trademark on products, will soon move to Switzerland to ensure that universities, governments and companies outside the United States can help develop its open-source technology. "From around the world, we've heard that 'If the incorporation was not in the U.S., we would be a lot more comfortable,'" its Chief Executive Calista Redmond said. Redmond said the foundation's board of directors approved the move unanimously but declined to disclose which members prompted it. More than 325 companies or other entities pay to be members, including U.S. and European chip suppliers such as Qualcomm and NXP Semiconductors, as well as China's Alibaba Group and Huawei Technologies.

The foundation's move from Delaware to Switzerland may foreshadow further technology flight because of U.S. restrictions on dealing with some Chinese technology companies, said William Reinsch, who was undersecretary of commerce for export administration in the Clinton administration. "There is a message for the government. The message is, if you clamp down on things too tightly this is what is going to happen. In a global supply chain world, companies have choices, and one choice is to go overseas," he said. The U.S. has increased tenancy to sanction foreign, especially Chinese, companies using national security as an excuse, thus conveniently evading legal due process in the U.S. justice system without providing any actual evidence.

The US Federal Communications Commission on Friday voted to bar use of its $8.5 billion a year Universal Service Fund to purchase equipment and services from Huawei and ZTE. The government fund is used by multiple programs to subsidize US broadband deployment and services. From a report: In a unanimous vote during its November open meeting, the FCC approved an order that blocks the use of USF funds to purchase equipment and services from companies that pose a national security threat. The order also establishes a process for barring more companies in the future. So far, just Huawei and ZTE are on the list. "Given the threats posed by Huawei and ZTE to America's security and our 5G future, this FCC will not sit idly by and hope for the best," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement Friday.

hackingbear writes: Microsoft has been granted a license to export [mass market] software to Huawei once again. The software giant was caught up in a long line of US-based technology companies that have been forced to comply with President Trump's executive order to crack down on Chinese tech companies. It's not immediately clear what "mass-market" refers to, but Microsoft sells Windows and Office licenses to Huawei. It's likely that Microsoft is at least able to sell Windows licenses to Huawei once again, which will help with Huawei's server solutions and its Windows-powered laptops. Microsoft is part of a number of US companies that are starting to get licenses to supply goods to Huawei once again. Huawei has been anticipating a fight with the US and prepared and succeed in replacing American (electronic) technologies with its own home-grown replacement for almost two decades after Motorola foolishly rejected the chance of acquiring Huawei, China's most successful hi-tech company worth at least $100 billion today, over a bargaining price of $7.5 billion. "When this decision was made, I told them [Huawei executives], if we continued to work in this sector, we would definitely be in a race against the US in 10 years. We had to prepare", said then Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei after the merger fell through. However, software ecosystems, i.e. Windows and Android, remain Huawei's Achilles' heel.

The Trump administration is giving American companies another three months to do business with the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, the Commerce Department said Monday. From a report: It is the third time the U.S. has extended a reprieve, which is meant to help ease disruption for Huawei customers. Many Internet and cellphone carriers in rural parts of the U.S. buy networking equipment from Huawei, and the temporary extension means they can keep their networks up to date. "The Temporary General License extension will allow carriers to continue to service customers in some of the most remote areas of the United States who would otherwise be left in the dark," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement.

Taiwan suspended sales of three Huawei smartphone models that identify Taiwan as part of China, striking a fresh blow in a long-running conflict over references to sovereignty. From a report: Phone carriers were ordered to stop offering Huawei's P30, P3O Pro and Nova 5T models starting Thursday because their displays included the words "Taiwan, China" for time zones and contacts, said Peter Niou, a deputy director at the National Communications Commission in Taipei. The reference impairs Taiwan's "national dignity," Niou said. The halt adds Huawei to the list of global brands, from Coach and Givenchy to JPMorgan, that have had to respond to the sovereignty dispute between separately governed Taiwan and China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory. The two fashion brands, owned by companies in the U.S. and France, apologized to China's government after offering T-shirts that identified Taiwan as a country.

A state-linked Chinese hacking group is using malware to steal SMS text messages from high-ranking military and government targets, according to cybersecurity company FireEye. From a report: The hacking technology, known as MESSAGETAP, "allows China to efficiently steal data from multitudes of sources from one location," Steven Stone, FireEye's director of advanced practices, said in a statement. "Espionage-related theft and intrusions have been long occurring, but what is new is the vast scale due to the use of this tool." The company's finding, released in a blog on Thursday, underscores the growing concerns about China's use of technology for espionage and the theft of intellectual property. Telecommunications pose a special concern, as the U.S. seeks to persuade its allies not to build their next-generation networks with tools from Chinese companies such as Huawei. But even in networks that China hasn't built, sophisticated hacking operations might allow access to data. In 2019 alone, FireEye observed eight attempts to target telecommunications entities by groups with suspected links to the Chinese government. Four of these hacking attempts were conducted by the group known as APT41 that is now using MESSAGETAP.

hackingbear writes: As reported by market researcher Canalys, Chinese tech giant and smartphone maker Huawei posted 66% annual growth, reaching a staggering 42% market share in China, which is the largest, albeit slightly shrinking, smartphone market in the world. A combination of keen pricing, technical innovation and patriotism has turned its strong domestic position into a dominant one, at the expense of Apple, whose market share has dropped to 5.1%, as well as other Chinese vendors such as Vivo and Xiaomi.

"Huawei is in a strong position to consolidate its dominance further amid 5G network rollout," Canalys commented. The Shenzhen tech giant knows that the impact of the blacklist is limited by unwavering support at home, where the headline loss of full-fat Android, its biggest international issue, has no impact -- Google's software and services are unavailable in China, while completely removing US-made semiconductors and components from its phones and networking gear.

China has formally created a $29 billion state-backed fund to invest in the semiconductor industry, advancing its goal of reducing a dependency on U.S. technology. From a report: China is the world's biggest chip importer, and the long-awaited 204 billion yuan ($28.9 billion) fund will fuel Beijing's efforts to forge its own semiconductor supply chain from chip design to manufacturing. It will play a key role in steering overall strategy and investment in the integrated circuit sector, which includes processors and storage chips used in smartphones and datacenters. Beijing's effort to reduce its reliance on American chips is taking on greater urgency as the Trump administration adds more Chinese names to its export blacklist, cutting off the flow of chips to targeted companies from Huawei to SenseTime. The fund's registered capital comes mainly from state organizations, according to company registration information, which was posted online on Oct. 22.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: The Federal Communications Commission is moving to place another restraint on the U.S. business of Huawei and ZTE by banning U.S. companies receiving federal subsidies from purchasing the Chinese firms' equipment (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai set the proposal for vote at the agency's meeting on Nov. 19. It would designate Huawei and ZTE as national security threat and tell U.S. firms not to buy their equipment using money from an $8.5 billion federal fund designed to fund telecommunications service in rural areas. The FCC would also propose further study, and potentially federal funding, for removing and replacing equipment from the companies that has already been installed. Mr. Pai in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday called this existing equipment an "unacceptable risk."

"This could antagonize the U.S.," reports Engadget: After months of talk, the UK is reportedly close to letting Huawei into its 5G networks. Sunday Times sources claim Prime Minister Boris Johnson is close to allowing the Chinese tech giant into "non-contentious" parts of 5G service in the country. While there wasn't much elaboration on what that meant, past reports suggested these would be areas where the potential damage from Chinese surveillance (if any) would be limited.

Earlier leaks suggested that all four of the UK's largest carriers (EE, O2, Three and Vodafone) were using Huawei gear in their 5G networks. While they're aware of concerns that China might task Huawei with using equipment to spy on UK targets, they may also have strong business incentives to adopt Huawei gear. It could help them build more heterogeneous networks that are less likely to fail outright, and force telecom giants like Ericsson and Nokia to offer more competitive pricing.