China mulling own ‘secure’ smartphones

With China growing increasingly wary of US surveillance, it is mulling its own "secure" smartphones in a bid to insulate them from surveillance.

The effort which would be another step in the country's quest to build a homegrown tech industry would involve state-owned companies and a number of the private players, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The report said Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd had partnered with China's ministry of public security to develop a mobile operating system for police officers that it said was more secure.

The country's largest chip-design company, Spreadtrum Communications Inc in a separate context said it would start mass production of  chips running a Chinese operating system by year-end.