MOSCOW, January 29 (Sputnik) — A group of US technology companies and trade associations have called on the Chinese cyber authority to reconsider new cybersecurity controls that require the disclosure of sensitive intellectual property.
In a letter to China's cybersecurity officials, dated Wednesday, around 20 US business groups, including and the US Chamber of Commerce, said the demand to turn over software source code to Chinese authorities and use only authorized encryption algorithms was "opaque" and "discriminatory," the New York Times reported.
The new Chinese trade purchasing requirements, laid out in a document approved at the end of last year, will primarily target computer equipment for Chinese banks.
Beijing revised cybersecurity standards after US National Security Agency's (NSA) former employee Edward Snowden revealed the broad scope of the United States government mass surveillance program. The NSA was revealed to have imbedded "backdoor" surveillance code in US software and hardware sold overseas.
This came after Washington blocked China's tech giant Huawei last spring from selling its products in the United States for the same reason, fearing the tech-maker could plant code in its technology that the Chinese would exploit to access sensitive information.
