Apple Inc has been asked by Chinese authorities within the past two years to hand over its source code, but refused, the company’s top lawyer told lawmakers on Tuesday in response to US law enforcement criticism of its stance on technology security.
The US congressional testimony highlighted an issue at the heart of a heated disagreement between Apple and the FBI over unlocking encrypted data from an iPhone linked to shootings in San Bernardino, California, in December last year: how much private technology companies should cooperate with governments.
Law enforcement officials have attempted to portray Apple as possibly complicit in handing over information to China’s government for business reasons, while refusing to cooperate with US requests for access to private data in criminal cases.
“I want to be very clear on this,” Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell told Tuesday’s hearing under oath. “We have not provided source code to the Chinese government.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said she did “not understand” details of the situation. She did not elaborate.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Apple has previously denied the accusation as a “smear” originating from the US Department of Justice’s effort to force Apple to help unlock the iPhone 5C used by one of the two San Bernardino suspects, who were inspired by Muslim militants.
The claim resurfaced in the hearing called by a US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce subcommittee to examine potential common ground between law enforcement and the technology sector in the encryption debate, although more than three hours of testimony yielded little clear agreement.
Captain Charles Cohen, a commander in the Indiana State Police, repeated a suggestion that Apple has quietly cooperated with Beijing, which strictly regulates technology in exchange for access to its market.
However, when pressed by Representative Anna Eshoo, a Democrat, for the source of that claim, Cohen only cited news reports.
“That takes my breath away,” a visibly frustrated Eshoo said. “That is a huge allegation.”
Technology and security experts have said that if the US government was able to obtain Apple’s source code with a conventional court order, other governments would demand equal rights to do the same thing.
While that standoff underscores national security concerns posed by advances in technology security, the growing use of strong default encryption on mobile devices and communications by criminal suspects is handicapping investigators’ ability to pursue routine cases, law enforcement officials told the hearing.
Apple and other companies defend the technology as integral to protecting consumers.
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