Chinese woman fakes pregnancy to smuggle Intel CPUs

[BFG10K]

Wonder where she put the sticker? Intel inside (tm).

Chinese Woman Busted Faking Pregnancy At Customs Smuggling A Belly Full Of Intel CPUs

Truth is certainly sometimes stranger than fiction...

hothardware.com

 

[IronWing]

Sweet Baby Jesus, can you imagine carrying an Intel CPU to term? 9 months, yeah! 10 months, um okay. 11 months, are you f'in' kidding me? 45 months, please, for the love of God, get this thing out of me!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hope it's not a PGA chip, that's going to hurt coming out!

 

[Shmee]

I am confused, does China not allow Intel CPUs inside? I would think they would welcome them due to Intel no longer selling over there.

 

[pete6032]

I am confused, does China not allow Intel CPUs inside? I would think they would welcome them due to Intel no longer selling over there.

They were probably stolen.

 

[sdifox]

How was that supposed to work? Pretty sure you cannot clear the metal detector, let along more advanced screening equipment. This is PRC, they are at the forefront of people surveillance.

Wait Macao, probably by land then. As to why, smuggling doesn't need a reason, just as long as it is profitable.

 

[kage69]

China buys, steals or copies whatever it can to catch up the West. Normal citizens are encouraged, nee' required, to help the CCP in these efforts when asked. Some do it for personal gain or sense of patriotism, or both. Theft is no problem, look what the Chinese have been doing to museums all over the world when it comes to Chinese antiquities.

CPUs are a crucial area where they can't compete, and we've put sanctions into effect that will prohibit the sale and development of high end stuff that would be handy for their military expansionism or their desire to further militarize space. 10nm chips would be easy to sell to a Chinese firm or party official I bet, or maybe this was going to be pure blackmarket for highest bidder.

Amateur hour though, clearly. Someone doesn't care about details.

 

[Shmee]

China buys, steals or copies whatever it can to catch up the West. Normal citizens are encouraged, nee' required, to help the CCP in these efforts when asked. Some do it for personal gain or sense of patriotism, or both. Theft is no problem, look what the Chinese have been doing to museums all over the world when it comes to Chinese antiquities.

CPUs are a crucial area where they can't compete, and we've put sanctions into effect that will prohibit the sale of high end stuff that would be handy for their military expansion in Asia or their desire to further militarize space. 10nm chips would be easy to sell to a Chinese firm or party official I bet, or maybe this was going to be pure blackmarket for highest bidder.

Amateur hour though, clearly. Someone doesn't care about details.

I get that, so that is why I don't understand why the Chinese customs are the ones to stop her.

 

[Charmonium]

I wonder what the heat sink looks like.

I get that, so that is why I don't understand why the Chinese customs are the ones to stop her.

Tariffs?

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, can you elaborate?

 

[kage69]

I get that, so that is why I don't understand why the Chinese customs are the ones to stop her.

Either freelancing or smuggling I imagine, though there's always rooms for fail by Customs. Official clandestine stuff wouldn't be bothering with customs at all of course. I suppose the manner of ingress doesn't matter so much, the point is that stuff won't be leaving China, save maybe in a missile or UAV. Reverse engineering things is something the Chinese have stressed a lot lately, I expect that is where the majority will end up.

 

[Charmonium]

Hmm, can you elaborate?

Not by a lot. Govts love to slap a tax on imports that can't be made in their own country.

 

[kage69]

Tariffs can be solved with money, restrictions for sales altogether plus no development tools is quite another bag of silicon. Chinese behavior called for some changes.

Notably, those changes also mean foreign companies will need a license if they use American tools to produce specific high-end chips for sale to China.