Security News > 2022 > January > China puts Walmart in the naughty corner, citing 19 alleged cybersecurity 'violations'

American budget retailer Walmart was cited for 19 alleged cybersecurity breaches in China, state-sponsored media reported last week.

The timing of the announcement is curious, as earlier in the week reports emerged in the Middle Kingdom that Walmart subsidiary Sam's Club was not stocking Xinjiang-produced goods.

Xinjiang remains an area of tension in US-China relations as the western world generally maintains that members of China's minority Muslim Uyghur population are being detained in heavily surveilled internment camps and subjected to human rights violations.

Sam's Club claimed in November to have sold over 4 million Chinese memberships in 36 stores across 23 cities, and said its e-commerce platform covered "Most of the country." Sam's Club shoppers are now cancelling their memberships in their droves due to the domestic perception of playing politics, according to a recording of a local analysts' call cited by Reuters.

At the end of December Sam's Club received a lashing from China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, accusing Sam's Club of "Secretly" and "Maliciously" removing the products and providing a "Deceptive excuse" of items simply being out of stock.

As China Quality News pointed out this week, Walmart already had several violations in the past year year that led to fines, including a ¥5,000 August 2021 fine for advertising naughtiness and ¥474 fine in November 2021 for poor "Product quality." .

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/01/10/walmart_china_security/