On Monday, January 26, Texas Governor Greg Abbott updated the list of prohibited technologies for state government employees, which includes products from dozens of Chinese companies such as Alibaba, NINGDE Times, TP-Link, and others. Abbott stated that this move is aimed at protecting the privacy of Texans from violations by the Chinese Communist government.
The Texas government, in a statement, mentioned that this update was completed after consultations with TJ White, Commander of the Texas Cyber Command (TXCC) and retired Rear Admiral of the U.S. Navy. The update includes additional restrictions on hardware, artificial intelligence, and software related to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
This is the latest case of state officials banning the use of Chinese technology citing security concerns. Abbott’s directive restricts state government employees from using hardware, artificial intelligence, and software from these Chinese companies on state-owned equipment and networks.
In his statement, Abbott said, “Rogue actors intent on harming Texans should not be allowed to infiltrate our networks and devices on a global scale.”
He added, “Adversaries collect user data through artificial intelligence and other applications and hardware to exploit, manipulate, and infringe on users, placing them at extreme risk. Today, I am expanding the list of banned technologies to mitigate this risk and protect the privacy of Texans from the infringement of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese Communist Party, and any other hostile foreign actors trying to jeopardize Texas’ security.”
In June of last year, Abbott established the largest state-level cybersecurity department, TXCC, to address cyber threats and comprehensively enhance the state’s cybersecurity posture, coordination, and strategy.
TXCC Director White stated, “The Governor and the Legislature have given the Texas Cyber Command a clear mission – to protect the people of Texas from hostile foreign and cyber threats. We are pleased to lead this effort to prevent network attacks that could potentially leak sensitive information to global bad actors as we work to safeguard all operational assets.”
Following Abbott’s instructions, the following Chinese companies’ products and technologies were added to the prohibited list after threat assessments by TXCC:
– Sensetime
– Megvii
– CloudWalk
– Autel
– NINGDE Times
– Wuhan Geosun LiDAR
– Yitu
– iFLYTEK
– Uniview
– Z.ai
– Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI)
– Alibaba
– Xiaomi
– Gotion High Tech
– Baidu
– RoboSense LiDAR
– TP-Link
– Hisense
– TCL
– Baichuan
– StepFun
– MiniMax
– PDD (Pinduoduo, Temu)
– Shein
– Moonshot AI
– Hikvision
These companies are all high-tech firms, many of which specialize in artificial intelligence.