China launched a security review of Palo Alto Networks products as the country intensifies its digital sovereignty in light of recent U.S. sabre-rattling.

Per Reuters, the review was initiated by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) in line with national security and cybersecurity regulations. The one-paragraph announcement does not name products, issues, or what punitive measures may be imposed against Palo Alto Networks.

The CAC’s probe comes shortly after China's commerce ministry imposed various restrictions targeting U.S. firms and drone exports. That move was seen as a tit-for-tat after a spate of U.S. sanctions, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expanding a ban on imports of Chinese-made network equipment.

Reports from earlier in the year claimed China had already blacklisted Palo Alto Networks alongside cybersecurity software from VMware and Fortinet. The alleged move came shortly after a revamp of the China Cybersecurity Law (CSL) to better protect Chinese sovereignty, which was taken seriously enough by Western entities like Nokia for them to publicly declare their full compliance.

The CSL revamp included a "Qinglang," or clean-up campaign, which targeted unregulated and unsafe AI models and usage. This likely included unauthorized distribution of foreign large language models (LLMs), a matter that became more topical when Alibaba reportedly banned its workforce from using Anthropic LLMs for security reasons.

Palo Alto Networks operates multiple offices in mainland China, with major hubs including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, along with an office in Macau.

Palo Alto in February was accused of "Sino-washing" when in a draft security report it tied a prolific hacking group to China, only for the explicit mention to be removed from the report’s official release.

In response to the accusation, the vendor said its report intentionally avoided attributing the activity to any specific source, emphasizing that its decision had no connection to “procurement regulations in China.”

A separate report published some days later was spotted by this title and mentioned China as an attacker base with little inhibition.