According to a report by The National Pulse, the military is allowing the sale of Chinese-made smart devices on bases that are known to track them and to send back personal information about troops and personnel.
"Chinese-made smart televisions in the homes of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and their families, as well as millions of other Americans, could be collecting massive amounts of personal and technical data and transmitting it back to CCP affiliates in mainland China," the report stated. "Two brands of smart television primarily sold in the U.S. – TCL and Hisense – have drawn recent scrutiny. According to The National Interest, 'Both TCL and Hisense are Chinese government state-owned enterprises that are under the control of the Qingdao and Guangdong governments, respectively.' SEC filings show that TCL is owned specifically by the Huizhou Municipal Government in China’s Guangdong province."
In 2019 alone, TLC sold more than 28 million smart TVs around the world, including the United States, as the company began to position itself as a major global brand. What made them so popular, especially with troops, is that they were of decent quality and they were low cost -- between $500 and $600, according to The National Interest, which made industry experts wonder just how they could be priced so low and the company still remain solvent.
The answer: Being government-owned, both TLC and Hisense are subsided and therefore do not need to turn a profit. Hence, they are literally being offered at cut-rate prices so China can better spy on its No. 1 enemy, all with the Biden regime's backing.
And here's the thing: Not only do the devices have the ability to capture significant amounts of personal information that is then transmitted to China, but the TV makers also don't even hide that fact.
"Openly-published privacy policies from the manufacturers themselves openly state the data to be collected, and what it can be used for. The Hisense Smart TV Privacy Policy, openly available on their website, states that the company transfers private user information directly to China. The same applies to the Hisense Smart Appliances Privacy Policy and the TCL Privacy Policy," The National Pulse reported.
The Trump administration was well aware of this situation and moved to prevent it from happening. Then-President Donald Trump's administration, in his final days in office, notified suppliers to Chinese electronics firm Huawei, including Intel, that it was revoking certain licenses and that the administration would further reject dozens of other applications to supply the Chinese company over espionage concerns, Reuters reported exclusively at the time.
The action at the time was "the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat," the newswire reported.
In December 2020, then-acting director of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., that China's spying included through the use of smart devices and technology.
"DHS is reviewing entities such as the Chinese manufacturer TCL. This year it was discovered that TCL incorporated backdoors into all of its TV sets exposing users to cyber breaches and data exfiltration. TCL also receives CCP state support to compete in the global electronics market, which has propelled it to the third-largest television manufacturer in the world," Wolf said at the time. "As Acting Secretary, I am immensely proud of the work DHS has done to recognize the threat China poses to the Homeland. We remain vigilant and will continue to call out the threat clearly. But for all we have done, we must do more."
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