From laser shields to iPhone detectors: inside China’s booming secrecy industry

In China, a secretive industry has been booming, focusing on laser shields and iPhone detectors to safeguard official secrets. A high-level meeting was recently disrupted by an invisible laser beam that managed to transmit the content of the conversation through a glass window. This prompted the Ministry of State Security to warn about the dangers of laser-based eavesdropping, a technology that can reconstruct speech from vibrations in windows captured by specially designed laser beams.

In response to these concerns, Chinese manufacturers have been working diligently to create devices that can detect and block laser eavesdropping, as well as other forms of espionage. These include specialized curtains made from electromagnetic-shielding fabric that can block electronic signals and prevent infrared thermal-imaging surveillance, and systems capable of detecting and blocking unidentified signals like Wi-fi and Bluetooth from devices not approved for official use.

Interestingly, there is also a growing demand for equipment that searches for signals emitted by foreign-made devices, particularly Apple products. This is due to national security concerns and Beijing's restrictions on the use of foreign-made electronic devices in certain government areas. One Chinese counter-espionage equipment manufacturer even confirmed that demand for their products surged around 2023, coinciding with a series of major counter-espionage and data security developments in China.