Don't buy an Android phone in China

"the trio of university boffins analyzed the Android system apps installed on the mobile handsets of three popular smartphone vendors in China: OnePlus, Xiaomi and Oppo Realme."

Cheers OP, just cancelled my yearly flight to china that I normally take for a new phone 🏻

Mobile phones in China are full of spyware? I am shocked!

Interesting read, if I understood correctly this refers to phones bought in China, not Chinese phones sold in UK?

Chinese brand phone sold oversea has different ROM from those from China...
They are talking about pre-install app like Baidu input, Baidu map...
Is there any different with google/ facebook/ youtube, etc?
Anyway, I think I have enough data held by big tech company. Small potato like me don't bother....

From that article:
"Border guards are taking their phones and secretly installing an app that extracts emails, texts and contacts, as well as information about the handset itself."

Like to see how they do that with a Westerner's iPhone using UK or US app store.