Lithuanians should throw away phones made in China and avoid buying new ones, the Ministry of Defense in Vilnius has warned, according to the BBC.
The National Cyber Security Center tested 5G mobile phones from Chinese manufacturers and found that a Xiaomi model had censorship software installed and a Huawei phone had security issues.
"Our recommendation is not to buy Chinese phones and get rid of the ones you have as quickly as possible," Deputy Defense Minister Margiris Abukevicius said.
Lithuanians discovered software on the Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G that could detect and censor certain terms, such as "Free Tibet," "Long Live Taiwan's Independence," or "Democracy Movement," the report said. There are 449 terms that can be censored by Xiaomi systems and the pre-installed browser.
In Europe, censorship systems have been disabled for these models, but according to the Lithuanian report they can be remotely activated at any time.
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In addition, according to the report, the Xiaomi Mi 10T 5G phone was transferring encrypted data usage information to a server in Singapore.
Xiaomi claims, however, that it does not censor the activity of its users.
"Xiaomi has not and will not restrict the behavior of smartphone users, such as searching, calling, web browsing or using third-party applications," the company said.
The Lithuanians also discovered vulnerabilities in the Huawei P40 5G phone, which put users at risk of a cyber attack. According to the Ministry of Defense in Vilnius, the official Huawei AppGallery application store directs users to third-party electronic stores, where there are dangerous applications that may contain viruses.
A company spokesperson told the BBC that Huawei respects the laws and regulations of the countries in which it operates and prioritizes cyber security.
“The data is never processed outside of the Huawei device. AppGallery collects and processes only the data necessary to enable its customers to search for, install and manage third-party applications in the same way as other application stores,” he added.
Huawei also conducts security checks to ensure users only download "safe apps", it added.
Another 5G model from OnePlus was also examined by the team, but was found to be free of issues.
The report comes as tensions between Lithuania and China escalate. Last month, China asked Lithuania to withdraw its ambassador from Beijing and said it would in turn withdraw its envoy from Vilnius.
The row started when Taiwan announced its missions in Lithuania will be called the Taiwan Representative Office.