US orders travelers on Air Force One to throw away gifts, pins, and burner phones after China trip

In Brief

President Trump and a delegation of U.S. officials near Beijing connected Friday aft 2 days of high-level talks with the Chinese government, led by President Xi Jinping.

Before boarding Air Force One, White House staffers and reporters had to surrender assorted items collected during the trip, including unit burner phones, credential badges, and lapel pins issued by China. Those traveling connected Air Force One threw those objects successful a bin astatine the bottommost of the plane’s stairs, according to a writer successful the White House property pool. 

“Nothing from China allowed connected the plane,” Emily Goodin, the White House analogous for the New York Post, wrote in a station connected X.

Photos from the travel amusement respective radical successful the U.S. authorities delegation, including Trump, White House communications manager Steven Cheung, Apple main enforcement Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Secret Service agents, each sporting pins connected their overgarment lapels. 

Goodin did not explicate wherefore officials and reporters had to propulsion distant those items, though presumably for information reasons. While the acme appeared cordial, China remains a cardinal adversary of the United States, fixed its precocious quality and espionage capabilities. The U.S. and its allies person agelong accused China of spying and carrying retired cyberattacks.

It’s not farfetched to judge immoderate of the talented items could beryllium bugged, arsenic governments have done before. It’s besides tenable to presume the burner phones were apt targeted during the trip. Burner phones are designed to beryllium caller and dedicated devices that tin beryllium utilized wherever attacks tin beryllium assumed, and aboriginal thrown out. 

Spokespeople for The White House did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news