China makes James Bond video mocking US tech privacy fears

State media agency depicts ‘James Pond’ being fooled by CIA agent in wake of MI6 chief’s criticisms of Beijing

Chinese state media have trivialised US and UK concerns around tech privacy and security with a parody film entitled: 0.07: No Time to Die Laughing.

The video, which was posted to Twitter and YouTube on Tuesday, apparently takes aim at Western governments for banning telecoms giant Huawei from running future 5G networks, among other actions taken against Beijing by both the US and UK.

In the video, a spy called “James Pond” – or “0.07” – and another called the “Black Window” – or “0.06” – makes contact with an American spy called “M” in the video shared by China’s state controlled Xinhua News Agency.

“M” tells “Pond” not to to buy a Huawei phone because the devices are a “Chinese backdoor”, and suggests the two spies take “CIA-certified” phones from underneath a table.

“Pond” and “Black Window” are then shocked that “M” admits to being assigned to spy on “the Great United Kingdom” with the “CIA-certified” phones.

The focus on Huawei and mobile technology was an apparent reference to the announcement of US sanctions against Huawei in 2020.

That came amid US claims that China had illustrated a “well-orchestrated, very top down, well-resourced effort to steal American and European intellectual property” and data, as NBC News reported.

While Huawei denied those claims, the UK government in 2020 also announced that it would remove the Chinese tech giant from its future 5G network, in a decision that Huawei said was “politically motivated and not based on a fair evaluation of the risks”.

As have UK and US lawmakers aired criticisms of Chinese tech firms such as TikTok for allegedly being beholden to China’s ruling Communist Party, although the social media platform also refutes the allegations.

Tweeting out the four minute-long parody, Xinhua News Agency said that the video showed a “’Secret Meeting’ between MI6 Agent 0.07 and the CIA after MI6 chief Richard Moore made China the agency’s top priority. Rib-tickling moments...”

Mr Moore, the head of the UK’s intelligence agency, said in November that China was responsible for “large-scale espionage operations” against the UK and other nations, and that the country had become the “single biggest priority” for MI6.

China, which ridiculed the claims and Britain in its parody video, responded at the time by saying Mr Moore was ““peddling fake news and false intelligence”, as Sky News reported.