Workers prepare for the opening of an Apple store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Jan. 23, 2015. (Photo : Reuters)
U.S. officials and business groups are pressing China to change a proposed law that could potentially drive them out of the Chinese technology market.
Under the proposed law, Beijing would be able to acquire proprietary information and boot foreign countries out of the domestic market.
The Chinese technology market is an attractive one to U.S. companies. Despite the many challenges they face, such as the disclosures of U.S. intelligence-gathering activities and the intense mistrust over cybersecurity between Washington and Beijing, U.S. firms still like to operate in the country. Foreign companies, especially U.S. companies, find it difficult to just leave the market because it offers rich rewards.
Today, U.S. firms are objecting a proposed law that mandates both foreign and domestic telecommunicators and Internet service providers to design backdoors in their systems so that Chinese authorities can easily have access.
The new law even proposed companies to provide authorities with their encryption codes when necessary. Foreign companies, if this new law comes into effect, would also be required to keep Chinese users' data on servers in Chinese mainland. Failure to abide with the rules would disable the companies from operating in the country.
Some U.S. companies shout foul over this new proposed law.
"U.S. tech companies will be faced with a very difficult choice because they will have to decide whether they want to stay in China and basically submit to surveillance," said Robert Atkinson, who heads the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank based in Washington.
It remains to be seen if the law would push through. U.S. and other foreign tech giants such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Linkedln, Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co. have already been contacted for their reactions. However, all of them refused to comment in the meantime.
