Travelers on Air Force One ordered to throw away gifts, phones after China trip

gorgoiler•7 minutes ago

Seems odd to “throw the items in a bin”. You’d more likely want to know who was given what, put each item in a sealed container, then analyze them later on. Unless you were dumb enough to think it was a bomb.

arbirk•about 2 hours ago

EU officials have to do the same when leaving the US

gpt5•about 2 hours ago

Source? I didn’t know EU officials are required to use burner phones in the US

ano-ther•about 2 hours ago

https://www.theregister.com/security/2025/04/15/report-ec-is...

866-RON-0-FEZ•about 2 hours ago

Anonymous sources, the EC didn't confirm anything, and the "proof" is well they didn't deny it either.

Quality reporting as usual from El Reg.

arbirk•about 2 hours ago

https://www.computerworld.dk/art/291220/frygter-spionage-eu-...

surgical_fire•about 1 hour ago

They definitely should. The US is a profoundly untrustworthy country.

stronglikedan•about 2 hours ago

Standard Practice? Yes. News? No. Hacker News? Hell no!

NooneAtAll3•about 2 hours ago

it's literally the most important plane of US government

secrecy concerns about happenings on board are obvious and are just basic security procedure

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the only question is whether there was an alternative way (on support transports) to keep anything to regift or smth

maxglute•about 1 hour ago

So what happens to the stuff after, I presume the embassy picks it up for processing, or it gets forwarded to US on another flight for processing, presumably some Chinese janitor is not going to have access to Rubios burner phone to resell.

z2•about 2 hours ago

Actually throw away as in discard and leave behind in China? I thought the logical thing to do would be to put them into a faraday cage and inspect them later in a lab.

benbojangles•about 2 hours ago

Didn't China steal the F-22/F35/B2/C17 blueprints, and also stole COVID?

rationalist•about 2 hours ago

Aren't there companies that issue burner phones and burner laptops for the same reason?

retired•about 2 hours ago

Ten years ago, a Dutch company I worked for had a standard protocol after government delegation trips to China: every phone and laptop used on the visit was fed straight into an industrial shredder.

866-RON-0-FEZ•about 2 hours ago

It's standard practice in the industry — if your company has a competent IT department — to mandate burner laptops and devices in China.

blipvert•about 2 hours ago

And now for EU visitors to the US.

tibbydudeza•about 1 hour ago

Soviet children gave the US ambassador a plaque of peace -hidden inside was a recording device that drew no power and gave off no emissions - it was activated when the KGB beamed a specific frequency to it and the feedback from it using fancy maths could give a realtime recording.

NooneAtAll3•about 2 hours ago

shouldn't they have been warned before even flying there?

browningstreet•about 2 hours ago

Jensen didn’t even know he was going on the trip… not a lot of forethought or process involved.

not_the_fda•about 1 hour ago

It should be SOP for any country's diplomats visiting another country.

jmclnx•about 2 hours ago

If I am not mistaken, isn't doing this an insult to China ?

Do me they could have put the items in a sealed maybe 'lead' box and examine them later.

boothby•about 2 hours ago

The Chinese government would be stupid to not do the exact same thing when departing the US. They aren't stupid, and they aren't going to wage war on the basis of some discarded lapel pins.

Simulacra•about 2 hours ago

I mean, the Chinese are probably ordered to do the same thing after a state visit to America

Travelers on Air Force One ordered to throw away gifts, phones after China trip

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