Do not use Chinese mobile phones, why did intelligence agencies warn soldiers and their families

Defense intelligence agencies have issued a major alert amid the ongoing military standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The agencies have advised to ensure that soldiers are not using Chinese mobile phones. The advisory issued by the defense intelligence agencies said, “Through various forms and channels, your personnel will have to be sensitized to take precautions against such (Chinese) mobile phone devices.”

According to the advisory accessed by ANI, military intelligence agencies have stated the need to discourage soldiers and their families from buying or using phones from countries hostile to India. Sources said, “This advisory has been issued because there have been cases in which malware and spyware have been found in mobile phones of Chinese origin by agencies.” The Chinese mobile phones available in the Indian market include Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, One Plus, Honor, Realme, ZTE, Gionee, Asus and Infinix.

Use of Chinese mobile phone-application stopped here

Even before this, spy agencies have been very active against Chinese mobile phone applications. Many such suspicious applications have also been removed from the phones of military personnel. Not only this, the defense forces have also stopped using Chinese mobile phones and applications on their devices. Now the intelligence agencies have been advised to be alert regarding the mobile phones of the family members of the military personnel. It is known that India and China are engaged in a military standoff on the border since March 2020. A large number of troops have been deployed against each other on the LAC from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

Demand to ban Chinese CCTV cameras

Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh Congress MLA Ninong Iring has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban China-made CCTV cameras in the country. Pasighat West MLA Ering has written a letter to Prime Minister Modi regarding this. In this letter, he also suggested to start a campaign to create awareness among people not to use Chinese CCTV cameras in their homes. The MLA said that the government may consider introducing indigenous cloud-based servers to keep the CCTV data secure as per the requirement. Citing media reports, the legislator said that Chinese-made CCTV cameras being used in the country could be used as ‘eyes and ears’ by Beijing.