China is emitting illegal greenhouse gas that destroys ozone layer

• A study by scientists from the University of Bristol, Kyungpook National University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds China responsible for a recent spike in the emission of an illegal greenhouse gas.
• China accounted for 40% to 60% of the global increase in trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, emissions between 2014 and 2017, the study says.
• CFC-11 was internationally banned under the Montreal Protocol because it destroys earth’s protective ozone layer.

By Yen Nee Lee

Factories in China’s Shandong province.

There has been a rise in the emission of an illegal greenhouse gas that destroys the earth’s ozone layer — and China is responsible for “a substantial fraction” of that increase, according to a new study.
The research published on Wednesday found that China accounted for 40% to 60% of the global increase in trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, emissions between 2014 and 2017. 

Emissions of the gas came primarily from the Chinese northeastern provinces of Shandong and Hebei, according to the study.
Scientists who conducted the study came from the University of Bristol in the U.K., Kyungpook National University in South Korea, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. 

Their research built on earlier studies about the spike in CFC-11 emissions into the atmosphere after 2013 by giving details on the geographic origins of those increases.
The latest study also confirmed media and activist reports that China is behind the emissions.
“Several considerations suggest that the increase in CFC-11 emissions from eastern mainland China is likely to be the result of new production and use, which is inconsistent with the Montreal Protocol agreement to phase out global chlorofluorocarbon production by 2010,” the scientists wrote in the abstract of the study.
The Montreal Protocol is an agreement signed by all 197 member states of the United Nations — including China — to regulate the production and consumption of chemicals that harm earth’s protective layer. 

The treaty has led to “a significant reduction” in harmful gases such as CFC-11, which then allowed the damaged ozone layer to heal, according to a report by Canadian newspaper National Post.
Last year, a report by The New York Times found that Chinese factories had ignored the global ban on CFC-11 under the Montreal Protocol. 

They had continued to make and use the chemical because it’s a cheaper material to produce foam insulation for refrigerators and buildings.
Non-governmental activist group Environmental Investigation Agency reported last year similar findings as the Times based on its own research. 

MIT terminates funding and research links with China’s Huawei and ZTE

• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is terminating all research and funding links with Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE in light of federal investigations regarding violations of sanction restrictions.
• MIT is one of several prestigious academic institutions in the U.S. to announce an end to ties with Huawei.

By Shirley Tay

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is terminating all research and funding links with Chinese tech firms Huawei and ZTE in light of recent U.S. federal probes, according to a letter from university officials.
MIT is one of several prestigious academic institutions in the U.S. to announce an end to ties with Huawei. 

Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota have cut all future research collaborations with the Chinese telecom company as well, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
“MIT is not accepting new engagements or renewing existing ones with Huawei and ZTE or their respective subsidiaries due to federal investigations regarding violations of sanction restrictions,” MIT Associate Provost Richard Lester and Vice President for Research Maria Zuber wrote in a letter to the faculty on Wednesday.
In a 2017 presentation by Huawei, MIT was cited as a collaborator in the Huawei Innovation Research Program. 

The program is a global initiative “to identify and support world-class, full-time faculty members pursuing innovation of mutual interest,” the SCMP reported the tech giant as saying.
The halt in funding to Huawei and ZTE comes at a time of heightening tensions between the U.S. and China.
U.S. lawmakers have said ZTE and Huawei equipment may represent national security risks, alleging that the companies’ products could support Chinese espionage. 

In January, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Huawei with violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and stealing trade secrets from U.S. telecom T-Mobile.
Huawei and ZTE, however, are not the only international entities affected by a halt in partnerships with the university.
MIT’s plans to cut ties with Huawei and ZTE is part of a bigger plan to ramp up its internal evaluation of international partners, the letter to faculty said.
“Engagements with certain countries — currently China, Russia and Saudi Arabia — merit additional faculty and administrative review beyond the usual evaluations that all international projects receive,” the MIT officials wrote.
MIT’s “elevated-risk” review process will pay special attention to “intellectual property, export controls, data security and access, economic competitiveness, national security, and political, civil and human rights,” the letter said.
ZTE declined to comment and Huawei did not immediately reply to CNBC’s emailed request for comment about MIT’s decision.

U.S. Tech Executioners

How U.S. tech powers China's surveillance state

By Erica Pandey

American companies eager to enter China’s massive market brace themselves for potential intellectual property theft or forced technology transfers. 

But there’s another threat at play: their technology is being used for surveillance.
The big picture: China has sophisticated systems of state surveillance, and these systems have long been powered by technologies developed by American companies. 

Beijing has used U.S. tech to surveil its citizens, violate human rights and modernize its military.

The entanglement
Companies doing business in China often get caught in a web: Beijing uses its economic leverage to draw them in and then uses their technology for police-state tactics. 

As a result, "American companies are enabling and complicit in major human rights abuses," says Elsa Kania, a technology and national security expert at the Center for a New American Security.
Another concern is American universities and research institutions partnering with Chinese companies that work with state security, she says.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts company, has supplied the Chinese government with DNA sequencers that it is now using to collect the DNA of ethnic minorities in East Turkestan, Human Rights Watch reports. 

At a Thursday hearing, Sen. Marco Rubio called Thermo Fisher's operations in East Turkestan "sick."
iFlyTek is a Chinese company that recently launched a 5-year partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Beijing has used iFlytek’s voice recognition technology "to develop a pilot surveillance system that can automatically identify targeted voices in phone conversations," according to Human Rights Watch.
Cisco, in 2011, participated in a Chinese public safety project that set up 500,000 cameras in Chongqing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Yahoo, in 2005, gave the personal information of a Chinese journalist to China's government. 

That information was used to put the man in jail.
Tech giants, like Facebook, Apple and LinkedIn, have faced scrutiny in the past for censoring or offering to censor content in China.
"Not all of these companies realize the extent to which their activities could be exploited," Kania says.
Companies often take on projects for the Chinese government in the name of curbing "crime", according to Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, but "the boundary between promoting public safety and protecting the state is increasingly blurred with these types of technologies."

The other side: Axios reached out to all of the companies listed above. 

The responses we received by deadline:
Thermo Fisher Scientific: "We work with governments to contribute to good global policy."
Cisco said it "has never custom-tailored our products for any market, and the products that we sell in China are the same products we sell everywhere else."
Oath, which now owns Yahoo: “We’re deeply committed to protecting and advocating for the rights to free expression and privacy of our users around the world."
LinkedIn: "In order to create value for our members in China and around the world, we need to implement the Chinese government’s restrictions on content, when and to the extent required."

The stakes
"A lot of people wanted very much to believe that once China had exposure to the outside world, political liberalization would come with economic liberalization," Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, tells Axios. 

"They're getting a lot richer and a lot more powerful and no more politically liberal."

What's next:
Some companies have pulled out of China of their own accord in the past. 

Google refused to censor its search engine in China in 2010, leading to its ouster from the country. Other companies may follow suit if they realize their technology is being misused, says Kania.
If companies cannot be held accountable by internal ethics guidelines, shareholders or users, the government may need to step in through export controls or limits on funding to researchers that collaborate with China, she says.
Worth noting: There's already a U.S. law that prohibits the export of crime-control products to China, but the sale of cameras and other dual use technologies that could be used for surveillance are not banned, reports the Wall Street Journal.