Chinese government surveillance of its predominantly Muslim Uighur minority was apparently both more extensive and began earlier than generally appreciated, the New York Times reports. The intrusive monitoring began at least in 2013, and wasn't confined to domestic targets, but extended to the Uighur diaspora worldwide.

Beijing's new national security law, enacted principally although not exclusively with Hong Kong in mind, has moved residents of the formerly semi-autonomous city to begin doing whatever they can to reduce their online traces before full enforcement is complete, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. While justified in terms of restoring "stability and prosperity" to Hong Kong, the new law has a global reach. Quartz claims that it criminalizes any criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, anywhere, by anyone, Chinese or foreign national. POLITICO says the European Union has begun considering a coordinated response to the new law.

The US Federal Communications Commission has formally designated both Huawei and ZTE as threats to the US national security. The FCC decision will, as Reuters and others point out, prevent US carriers from using money from the Universal Service Fund (which controls $8.2 billion) to purchase equipment from either company. The FCC also said that Congress would need to appropriate funds to compensate companies who now will have to rip-and-replace gear from the two Chinese manufacturers. Rural telecom carriers are most affected by the decision.

Microsoft issued two out-of-band patches yesterday to address remote code execution vulnerabilities in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, ZDNet reports.