{"id":119340,"date":"2021-09-11T21:50:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T13:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaintel.asia\/?p=550276"},"modified":"2021-09-11T21:50:19","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T13:50:19","slug":"us-senators-want-tencent-backed-internet-of-things-firm-tuya-sanctioned-calling-the-chinese-platform-a-security-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2021\/09\/11\/us-senators-want-tencent-backed-internet-of-things-firm-tuya-sanctioned-calling-the-chinese-platform-a-security-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"US senators want Tencent-backed Internet of Things firm Tuya sanctioned, calling the Chinese platform a security threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MediaIntel.Asia\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Three US senators are urging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to sanction Chinese Internet of Things (IoT) company Tuya Smart, calling the New York-listed company a national security threat that undermines Americans\u2019 privacy. Republican senators Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Tom Cotton said the Chinese company is required to share user data with its government under the country\u2019s Data Security Law , which went into effect this month, in a public letter published on the US Senate\u2019s website on Friday. China\u2019s legal data-sharing requirements have been an oft-cited national security concern in the US. \u201cCyber and national security experts have already raised significant concerns about Tuya\u2019s lack of protections over users\u2019 data,\u201d the senators wrote. \u201cHowever, there is also a more basic reality that, as a [People\u2019s Republic of China] company, Tuya is obligated to comply with [Communist Party] orders, including requests to share American and other users\u2019 data with the Chinese government.\u201d CCP must keep its grip on data, writes boss of Chinese central enterprise To do nothing, the senators argued, would mean \u201ccontinuing to provide Beijing a direct line to Americans\u2019 private data\u201d, helping the country\u2019s exploitation of IoT vulnerabilities. Tuya said the senators\u2019 claims were \u201cwithout merit\u201d because the company isolates all user data regionally, including in the US. \u201cTuya has never received a request from one country\u2019s government to share user data from another country,\u201d Tuya told the Post on Saturday. \u201cWe take compliance with all security and privacy laws seriously and strive to abide by the laws in all markets where we operate \u2013 including the United States and China. Tuya is prepared to aggressively defend itself against any claims to the contrary.\u201d The senators want Tuya added to a list of Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies, expanding an executive order US President Joe Biden issued in June that bans Americans from investing in Chinese companies believed to have ties to the Chinese military. All three senators are known for their relatively hawkish positions on China. Scott once alleged that every Chinese citizen is required to spy for the government. Beijing sanctioned Rubio and Cotton last year over their positions on Hong Kong. Tuya, which operates an IoT cloud platform that connects a wide range of smart devices, raised US$915 million in its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in March. It was the second largest US IPO by a Chinese firm this year. The Hangzhou-based company is backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings and US venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Jeff Immelt, a partner at NEA and former CEO of General Electric, also sits on Tuya\u2019s board of directors. Tuya has become the latest target of increased scrutiny in the US of publicly listed Chinese companies. China\u2019s three state-owned telecoms operators \u2013 China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile \u2013 and CNOOC, China\u2019s largest offshore oil explorer, were all delisted from American bourses following a November 2020 executive order by former US president Donald Trump. China wants to lead in the next internet protocol as Beijing eyes IoT era The order bans Americans from investing in companies identified by the US Department of Defense as having ties to the Chinese military. Biden expanded the ban to 59 companies with his June order, which went into effect on August 2, giving Americans a year to divest shares in the listed companies. Concerns over Chinese equities have been heightened this year as a prolonged crackdown from Beijing regulators on China\u2019s tech sector have sent stocks plummeting in Hong Kong and New York. The fall of share prices for ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing in July was particularly alarming for global investors and regulators. Beijing opened a cybersecurity probe into the tech giant days after it listed in New York. The company\u2019s shares now trade at about half their peak, and Didi faces shareholder lawsuits in the US.<\/p>\n

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three US senators are urging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to sanction Chinese Internet of Things (IoT) company Tuya Smart, calling the New York-listed company a national security threat that undermines Americans\u2019 privacy. Republican senators Marco …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[934,65,144,13,129,130,1012,339,4,30,785,194],"tags":[10320,3686,10424,3472,10321,3544,3929,2328,2353,2240,2172,7571,10332,10385,8399],"class_list":["post-119340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-beijing","category-china","category-china-mobile","category-china-telecom","category-china-unicom","category-communism","category-hong-kong","category-internet","category-mobile","category-new-york","category-news-chinese-law","tag-biden","tag-boycott","tag-china-general-news","tag-chinese","tag-communist","tag-donald-trump","tag-espionage","tag-hangzhou","tag-ipo","tag-military","tag-national-security","tag-oil","tag-sanctions","tag-security-law","tag-spy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119341,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119340\/revisions\/119341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}