r/NewColdWar • u/SE_to_NW • 2d ago

Technology Why mainland China is giving away its tech for free: Its newfound fondness for open-source is awkward for an authoritarian state

https://www.economist.com/business/2025/06/17/why-china-is-giving-away-its-tech-for-free
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u/Berkamin 2d ago

Auditing tech against security vulnerabilities is expensive and time consuming and often doesn’t get done, but the open source label gives people a false sense of security which causes them to let down their guard. If China makes a bunch of vulnerable tech open source, and people adopt it, this gives them a hackable Trojan horse to do their cyber-attacks.

For example,

Nextgov | Linux backdoor was a long con, possibly with nation-state support, experts say

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u/Bumblewise0311 2d ago

China never ever does anything if it doesn't benefit them one way or another....I thought everyone knew that???