Beijing must have its tentacles in company's technology, IP and source codesAmerican companies that do business in China know there are strings attached. They know they will be required to have Chinese Communist Party-affiliated executives as members of their management and marketing teams and even their boards of directors.
Microsoft has been in China for 20 years now. It works on engineering projects, research initiatives and expanding its software and artificial intelligence sales. In the course of doing this, it has become dangerously involved in China’s tech ecosystem. One doesn’t have to be a tech genius to understand the threat this could pose for America’s economic, technological and even strategic security. A report earlier this month from the federal Cyber Safety Review Board hammered Microsoft for having an inadequate security culture that permitted Chinese hackers to breach email accounts of senior U.S. government officials, including Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
So you have several government agencies with diverse missions all expressing concern about Microsoft’s involvement with China and its implications for security within those missions. It is clear from the reports mentioned above that the agencies involved do not see this as a close call. Anytime you see “shoddy,” “lax,” “lack of transparency” and “needs an overhaul” in proximity, you can assume things are amiss.