Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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A TAIWANESE COMPANY, ADLINK Technologies, has been named in a report by InterSecLab as providing specialized networking hardware to a Chinese company known for exporting Internet censorship technologies popularly referred to as the Great Firewall. A previous report by InterSecLab detailed Geedge’s actions in this regard.
Specifically, ADLINK Technologies provided 1,708 CSA-7400 network appliance units to the company in question, Geedge Networks, between 2019 and 2020. These units were deployed in Kazakhstan to allow for surveillance and censorship.
Geedge Networks technologies are also deployed in Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Myanmar. While the Chinese government often claims that its ties with other countries are for the sake of economic development and peaceful cooperation, this points to how the Chinese state sometimes is a provider of repressive technologies to authoritarian regimes.
Geedge Networks has close ties with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, illustrating its links to the Chinese state. Geedge Networks is thought to have links to surveillance technologies deployed in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs.
For its part, ADLINK Technologies did not deny that it had provided the equipment to Geedge Networks. ADLINK cited that Geedge Networks is not on any restricted list. As a result, after completing a routine export control list screening and compliance review, ADLINK shipped the networking appliance units to Geedge Networks.
Intersec’s report disputed ADLINK’s claim that the hardware it provided to Geedge was routine networking equipment; however, in that the hardware sold by ADLINK is marketed as security equipment for use in firewalls and inspecting packets. Intersec’s report raises that though it is possible that ADLINK did not know what the end use of the equipment would be, that seems to suggest that ADLINK relies on customer disclosure, rather than conducting active due diligence.
ADLINK has since stated that it will conduct an internal audit, as well as that it will cooperate with regulatory authorities. For its part, when asked by InterSec Lab, the Ministry of Economic Affairs declined to comment on specific companies. However, it stated that Taiwan has an entity list that references sanctions and control lists issued by the United Nations Security Council and partner countries, as well as that Taiwan maintains control lists that reference four major international export control regimes.
Even so, that ADLINK Technologies provided hardware to Geedge Networks shows gaps in Taiwan’s existing laws, shows existing measures did not prevent hardware sales to a Chinese company notorious for its involvement in exporting repressive technologies. DPP legislator Puma Shen is quoted in InterSec’s report stating that Taiwan should create its own entity list, rather than rely on entity lists from the US or European Union, as a better solution.
More generally, the Taiwanese government has often not been very concerned about international sanctions or political and trade links with countries that have questionable human rights records, with some exceptions–namely, China, North Korea, and Russia. But as Geedge Networks is a Chinese company, it proves surprising that there was such a lack of action. After the report, it is to be seen if there will be any response that might lead to pressure, such as criticisms from Taiwanese civil society groups.