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Samsung devices are now banned from use by Chinese officials
August 09, 2025
Several months ago, the Chinese government prohibited all state agencies from usingany Apple products. The fear was that Apple hardware was being used by the Western world to find state secrets in China. Apple, has of course,deniedthese claims multiple times. One specific reason for this fear from China stems from theNSA being caught spyingon HUAWEI, one of the largest local smartphone manufacturers.
Now we can add Samsung to the banned list in China. Samsung deviceshave been bannedfrom use by Chinese state officials. Much like the reasons that Apple was added to the banned list, the Chinese government is claiming that they havesecurity concernswith Samsung devices.
This means that HUAWEI, already one of the largest smartphone makers in China (and world), is thenew official mobile deviceprovider for Chinese officials and state employees. Let’s not also forget that Chinese officialswere previously barredfrom installing Windows 8 on their devices.
As PhoneArenapoints out, it is also likely that the Chinese government added Samsung to the banned list to try and boost the development of some local manufacturers.
Speaking of a local Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi, a leading China smartphone company, iscurrently under investigationby the Taiwanese government to determine whether Xiaomi is a cyber security threat.
This is not the first time that Xiaomi has faced allegations of security leaks. In August, a Finnish security companyfound proofthat Xiaomi was collecting address book data without permission. Xiaomi hasalso been accusedof sending copies of text messages back to servers in China.
The sending of data back to servers in China is one of the reason that companies such as Googlehave opted notto situate servers in China. Apple, on the other hand, began to store users’ personal data on servers in Chinalast month.
According to the Taiwan National Communications Commission, the test results of Xiaomi phones should be made publicsoon. Until then, Taiwan continues to view Chinese technology with suspicion. Taiwan’s police force hasrecently encouraged employeesnot to use WeChat, the mobile messaging app developed by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings.
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