DOJ “Task Force” Will Target Tech Used By Americans

Topline

The Justice Department will form a new task force aimed at preventing China and other foreign governments from accessing data through technology used by Americans, a top DOJ official said Thursday—the latest move by the government to rein in Chinese spying after shooting down the notorious surveillance balloon and persistent concerns about TikTok.

Key Facts

The Departments of Commerce and Justice will form the “Disruptive Technology Strike Force” that will seek to prevent foreign governments from secretly gathering data and other intelligence through hacking and collusion with technology companies, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Thursday.

The task force will deploy federal regulators to ensure that international tech companies with American investments do not leverage the relationships to gain access to data and information that could undermine national security, Monaco said.

Monaco said the task force will also “enhance public-private partnerships to harden supply chains,” in an effort to prevent foreign governments from “trying to siphon our best technology,” a move that would expand the federal government’s efforts to limit exports of technology manufactured in the U.S. to China and other rival countries.

“It is a good bet that the Chinese government is accessing” data from Chinese-based companies with operations in the U.S., Monaco said—a warning that comes after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had been flying over North America for at least a week.

Key Background

The move is the latest initiative by the Biden Administration to implement tighter controls on China’s use of technology to spy on the U.S. and gain military and economic advantages.The Biden Administration last year ordered major tool manufacturers to cut off exports to Chinese-owned factories producing semiconductor chips and also blocked exports of chips used in Chinese supercomputing systems. The Administration is also planning an expansion of those rules that would limit American investments in Chinese chip-making companies, Reuters reported last week, citing unnamed sources.

Tangent

Congress is also taking steps to crack down on China’s technological advances and surveillance capabilities. The new House Select Committee on China, formed earlier this year in a bipartisan vote, is taking aim at the video-sharing app TikTok, whose parent company, ByteDance, is closely linked to the Chinese government. Revelations reported by Forbes last year that the company used the app to track the locations of journalists who cover ByteDance heightened concerns of collusion between the company and the Chinese government. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is also probing TikTok’s surveillance capabilities and will question its Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew in a hearing before the committee in March. Separately, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is rallying behind legislation that would ban the app in the U.S., after the federal government and multiple states recently blocked the app from government-owned devices.

Further Reading

TikTok CEO To Testify Before Congress Amid Growing Concerns Of Privacy, National Security, Child Exploitation (Forbes)

LinkedIn Profiles Indicate 300 Current TikTok And ByteDance Employees Used To Work For Chinese State Media—And Some Still Do (Forbes)

New U.S. House Targets China: 2nd Bill Prohibits Oil Sales, As Beijing Becomes A Target (Forbes)