Government agencies are to be banned from using any Chinese electronics from the end of this year, rather than have a “blacklist” of products that must be continually updated, a source within the Executive Yuan said on Saturday.
The Executive Yuan on April 19, 2019, released guidelines on the use of information and communications technology products that might pose a threat to national cybersecurity at public institutions.
The guidelines included plans to publish a list of banned products within three months, but the list has yet to be released.
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Responding privately to legislators’ concerns over the delay, the Executive Yuan said that it revised the policy by banning all information and communications technology products made by Chinese firms, an Executive Yuan source said on condition of anonymity.
The change was made over concerns about needing to constantly update a list, as well as the difficulty of precisely defining its scope, considering the volume of subsidiary products, the source said.
Federal and local agencies had been instructed to remove all China-made information and communications technology equipment by the end of this year, he said.
Agencies unable to comply must seek approval from the Executive Yuan in a report stating their reasoning and when banned products could be phased out, he added.
The decision is a prudent way to avoid the controversy that can accompany publishing a blacklist, the source said.
Central government agencies had been banned from using equipment made by Huawei Technologies over concerns regarding its links to China’s People’s Liberation Army, but products such as cameras from Hikvision Digital Technology are still widely used due to their competitive pricing, reports have said.
Executive Yuan data released in May showed that 19,256 China-made devices were in use at 2,596 public schools, federal agencies and local governments.
Of these, 717 institutions used 1,848 drones or cameras made by the Shenzhen-based firm Da-Jiang Innovations Technology, the data showed.
Meanwhile, 423 institutions used 1,632 computer networking or recording products from TP-Link Technologies, and 309 agencies or schools used 1,076 camera products from Hikvision, the data showed.
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