Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday pledged to protect cybersecurity, following reports this month that a US government agency had been secretly tapping the company’s networks.
The New York Times and Germany’s Der Spiegel said the US National Security Agency (NSA) had accessed Huawei’s e-mail archive, communications between top company officials and the source code of some of its products.
The NSA operation grew to include penetrating Huawei communications products sold to third countries in order to “gain access to networks of interest” across the globe, the New York Times reported.
“Protectionism and cybersecurity are just a few of the challenges and risks that we face,” Huawei acting chief executive officer Eric Xu (徐直軍) said in the private company’s annual report for last year.
“Under any circumstance, supporting the stable and secure operations of customers’ networks is our most honored commitment to our customers as well as one of our core strategies,” he said.
Huawei has previously condemned the alleged US activities described in the media reports, which were based on documents provided by fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden, but has not confirmed them.
Shenzhen-based Huawei was founded in 1987 by former People’s Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei (任正非), and is now among the world’s top makers of telecommunications equipment.
Washington has long seen it as a security threat due to perceived close links to the Chinese government, which the company denies, and both the US and Australia have barred it from involvement in broadband projects over espionage fears.
Meanwhile, Huawei announced net profit of 21 billion yuan (US$3.47 billion) last year, up from 15.62 billion in 2012.
Sales revenue surged 8.5 percent year on year to 239.03 billion yuan, the company said.
“Thanks to the favorable global macroeconomic and industry environment, as well as the effective execution of our company strategy, Huawei basically achieved our business targets for 2013,” Xu said.
Huawei forecast a 10 percent increase in sales this year from last year, as the company is broadening its product lineup with smartphones, tablets and business-computing products and services.
The closely held company made 65 percent of revenue from outside China as it targets more sales to larger customers.
However, in the annual report Ren said it would be difficult to catch up or surpass US companies in the firm’s business areas.
“We must be conscious of the power of the United States,” he said. “They have advanced systems, flexible mechanisms, clear property rights and respect and protection of individual rights.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained