China has trained its regulators on one of America’s biggest security companies. Authorities have launched a cybersecurity review into Palo Alto Networks, a move that deepens an already tense standoff.
The review is a powerful instrument. In China, this kind of examination can restrict a company’s ability to sell into critical sectors while it is under way, giving the process real bite regardless of its eventual findings.
The specifics remain thin. The scope of the review and exactly what prompted it have not been detailed, but the target is unmistakable, and so is the message it sends to foreign security vendors.
This did not come from nowhere. Earlier this year China barred cybersecurity products from a set of top US and Israeli firms, with Palo Alto among the names caught up in the restrictions.
The pressure runs both ways. Washington has been drafting its own ban on Chinese devices in data centres, so each capital is now moving against the other’s hardware and software in parallel.
