“This administration will do what it takes to keep America safe and prosperous and to protect America from foreign adversaries”
Funny how the White House refuses to apply the same stance in looking into Russia's interference in our voting system and, ultimately, our democracy.
15
While China is a risk to this country especially in Cyber issues, where is Trump's concern for Russia? The biggest risk to our country right now is Trump, Barr, McConnell, Graham and the rest of the GOP enablers. The greatest threat to our way of life, culture and values is within our own government. This government is now a Trump business making money for the King. The Russian companies could not meet American standards of surveillance either Mr. Graham. Look within Sir for threats. They are within you.
10
While China certainly should be dealt with -- their practices have both helped (we are the most powerful country int he world) and hurt America. Mr. Trump doesn't know anything about anything and he has surrounded himself with like-minded ignorant people, so why would anyone listen to him. The TPP was the only way to really get some control of China, but no -- Mr. Trump backed out of that and he backed out of Iran and anything else that had Obama's name on it. If just once he thought about his country or the American people -- instead of the vile deplorables who voted for him, we might have a chance, but now the only chance is for him to be defeated in 2020!
5
“..that no American firms make the core switches that will direct 5G internet traffic.”
Well how the heck did that happen? That’s just utterly ridiculous!
Perhaps a grand bargain...
> Let Huawei and ZTE back into US cyberspace, if they – supported by the Chinese gov’t – agree to never turn on any spying apps
> Let 7*7 MAXs back into Chinese airspace, if Boeing – supported by the US gov’t – agrees to never turn on any MCAS apps
In case of too-frequent or too-flagrant violations, both governments would form a special investigatory panel chartered with finding a way to blame all of the transgressions on Facebook – and a Chinese social media company to be named later...
Either this, or going to Hong Kong, and declaring:
“Mr. Xi, tear down this wall!!”
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/13/world/excerpts-from-reagan-s-talk-at-the-berlin-wall.html
Worked once, on so many levels – what could possibly backfire...
On 2nd thought, perhaps Brandenburg – to speak to the biggest and most supportive EUrocrowd ever...
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/world/europe/13iht-berlin.4.14456840.html
"...Obama didn't do anything for German unification," Huber told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper....as a result there is no reason to grant him such a privilege...
Wow – nothing as simple as it seems...
Let’s invite some really smart immigrants to figure this out...
Lots of them...
Now – which country has lots of really smart potential immigrants...
Oh – Bolton’s got an idea...
When any Chinese tour NYC, take away their visas, and don’t let them out till they’ve started a high-tech company in LIC...
See, John gets the picture – and bigly...
If you can't compete in price or quality, or beat competitors to the market, then you create propaganda to make them your mortal enemy and erect artificial barriers. Why did American businesses turn to China to make their products without protecting their intellectual property- Greed I believe!
3
When a government is directed by powerful, private, financial power, it has opened the door to greed. The family unit suffers, nutrition suffers, health care suffers, education suffers and the social fabric is torn and in decline.
To correct this, a government must find the courage and resolve to remove powerful, private sector, financial influence and control of elected representatives.
We cannot expect this of the GOP. We can only hope for it by supporting progressive Democrats. We must avoid at all cost the continuance of the existing 'system' in D.C.
8
The real problem is of course that the general IT-infrastructure was never built for security. It has been developed and updated far faster than the under-dimensioned security teams have been able to reverse engineer and assess the risks. Trump does not know Huawei presents a risk, he thinks they might be. Well, so can anyone.
Any country can point to almost any part of their IT infrastructure and say there is a security problem and they would be right. But they would probably not be able to pinpoint the problem. They would not be able to say "if we use products from company B, we will be safer than if we use company A. They cannot say that because they know that whatever they know at any moment was true one year ago, if at all.
If Trump wants a safe infrastructure, the first thing would be to research the possibilities of actually doing that. Maybe together with his allies (oops). Not to be selective when choosing from the current offers.
2
Do you see any categorical denial from Chinese government that it will under no circumstances will interfere with Huawei and that it will make rules banning government from interference? Of Course not! Chinese work at a very deep level. They have this long range plan to dominate the world by any means!!!
4
That Trump administration is playing a hard ball against Communist-controlled tech company, this could be a history making episode. Let’s decouple us from, first, communists and their military forces. Then, from Trump.
2
Foreign telecom gear means all foreign gear. I guess that the author forgot that a lot of telecom gear is made in Europe and Japan.
1
Interesting - We are more worried about the Chinese potential threat than the Russian actual threat to our elections.
5
I don't trust nor expect Huawei, Samsung nor Apple to protect my interests, privacy or values.
I don't trust nor expect Verizon, A T & T etc to do so either.
I don't trust nor expect the governments of America or China to do so either.
5
Huawei is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese government. Never mind the spying, taking control of infrastructure is what they’re after.
3
"only to be told that no American firms make the core switches that will direct 5G internet traffic."
Am I the only one that thinks this is being cooked up by U.S. telecoms to give them time to gain a market advantage or destroy the Chinese manufacturers entirely?
3
Can someone explain to me how could Huawei’s gears are threats given their technologies are all stolen from us, it should be as safe as a cage, isn’t it?
I wonder is Israel, the originator of so much hacking software (by ex-military and Mossad software engineers, bent on creating a surveillance state in Israel - in the Arab / Palestinian enclaves anyway) on the 'threat to security' list? It should be.
3
The overreaching part of this order is the part that prevents American companies from selling to Huawei. If the Commerce Department has the authority to tell American companies who they can and can’t sell to, then all American companies effectively state-controlled enterprises, who are legally required to put the American government’s geopolitical interests above their own commercial interests.
It’s not surprising that many people in foreign countries don’t buy our arguments that the Chinese government might hypothetically force Chinese companies to disrupt services when they see the US government actually forcing US companies to disrupt services.
1
In the past 20 years we have allowed ourselves to become a vassal state of China. While we were consumed with identity politics, China focused on high tech and manufacturing industries and brought millions of its people out of poverty. They won the race and are proud of they’re accomplishments. Is a president for life more beneficial to its people than three branches of ineffective government?
2
Let’s be clear, major tech companies gave away their “intellectual” property when they rushed to other countries to not only manufacture their product but gain market share within countries. Go to any research university in the U.S. and you will see foreign students and faculty , some sponsored by their govt., and courted for the high tuition income stream they produce, deeply involved in the R&D of every component across every platform in technology. When you put a product on the market you want to protect there has to be checks/ balances and due process. Tech Companies in a rush for profits did not participate in due process and now they want the American people to bail them out. The train left the station long ago, driven by greed.
3
America first continues to roll; however, I doubt limiting a hardware manufacturer will slow information transfer to other nations. There are simply too many tricks already in place. Guess who has been manufacturing your iphone....
1
Black listing Chinese companies is all about protectionism and has nothing to do with the overall National Security that the Administration is talking about. It goes hand in hand with the mantra of buying American. Yes we could ask our Governments to use only US made parts for all the contracts that the US government funds. We use to do that for every US government contracts as a certificate of origin was required then came the globalization of capital (I use the term very carefully as it was only globalization of capital and not true globalization). It became impossible to comply with the US funded contracts if only US origin products were to be used. We were allowed to skip the condition of CO.
I wonder what we would be asked to do if the DOD requires us to furnish a product and nothing compatible is available with made in the US of A?
It is a slippery slope for Capitalism that we are embarking on and the protectionist policies really do not go with Capitalism but are Socialist/Communistic in nature. Is the President and the Republicans ready to defend this stance of Socialistic policy during this election cycle when they are the ones calling the Democrats Socialists?
Its all about helping big business nothing more.
8
Amazing, again the U.S. does not even seem to be a competitor in the upcoming 5G wave. No US companies can compete. How did we yet again miss? We used to be the leaders across so many industries. Now? We can't make a cell phone. Not sure if we can even make a shoe anymore. Capitalism is supposed to make us fast to respond to markets; that is what we have been taught, right? Well, the capitalists sold us out. Great for them, they have won the party. But at our expense. Can't afford schools. Can't afford healthcare. Can't afford any public investment. The 5G situation, our companies not apparently a part of the discussion, is a huge disappointment. Not even competing anymore.
38
@Ramjet - I think you're throwing out the bathtub with the bathwater. Sure, US companies decided to outsource most of manufacturing to lower-cost countries. Sure, that was done so that these companies could profit - but it also got US consumers much cheaper goods. Nobody forced Joe Schmoe to buy their TV at Walmart - and, thus, put their fellow citizens working at the Zenith plant down the road out of work!
To complain that 'capitalists have sold us out' is to have selective memory. It's this victim mentality which is partly responsible for the sad state the US finds itself in. It's easy to blame someone else - much harder to actually think about what you're doing and make choices or take action.
6
If I were Xi Jinping, I would certainly make sure that the chips China sends to an America totally dependent on my country had clandestine embedded code allowing me to turn off, activate, or control the chip.
You may not care if your gadget suddenly doesn't work, but you are likely to be lost if the electric grid goes down or you can't access funds from your bank. And if a B-52, F-35 , or the nuclear command and control system is diverted, lack of access to your money will be the least of your problems.
Security is a genuine issue, and neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are talking about it. Though I would not vote for Trump for undertaker, just because he does something, it does not mean it's automatically wrong.
23
@Steve Fankuchen, you might be pleasantly surprised to realize that high-end chips are still manufactured in US. That's the reason why ZTE was on the verge of shutdown when US threatened to disallow Qualcomm from selling ZTE its chips. China manufacturing dominates the low-end spectrum, but Trump is right, in that if we allow China its expansion, 5G will see China leapfrog past US to have tech lead. If that happens, we'll have no hope of turn back the clock.
6
@tiddle Qualcom is, afaik, fabless. Their 'chips' are designs they license, vast majority of them are likely fabricated in China by the likes of TSMC
1
This is long overdue.
Whatever happens with trade (good, bad or indifferent), Huawei computer/telecommunications/electronic material in government owned equipment should not be permitted. The same reasons apply to Chinese manufactured steel. Chinese steel should never ever be used in the construction of bridges, dams and hospitals and other important structures because Chinese steel is inferior to U.S. steel and Huawei products are not only inferior, but also likely infected with computer viruses and hacked equipment placing the U.S. at risk of sabotage by the Chinese.
21
@F1Driver Is there any actual evidence to either of your three claims? How is lChinese steel inferior to US steel” and how are Huawei products “inferior” and “infected with viruses and hacking equipment”v
3
@Zhanwen Chen
Once the trust is lost it takes a long time to get it back. China should try again in 15 years - that is if they show good behavior.
6
@Zhanwen Chen Dear Mother of Gawd! Seriously!? How much time do you have?
No. This reply can not go unanswered.
Let me give you an example: go to any mechanic shop and look at the tools being used. Exactly! The tools mechanic used are U.S. made, they are 10 times more expensive than Chinese tools because they are 100 times better.
The specs in Chinese steel are wildly inconsistent. From one extreme to another, in chemical composition. Chinese steel is accepted in current construction while holding one's breath. And I am willing to bet there is Chinese steel in Trump's building, but that is not the issue.
My structural engineer would summarily execute me if I tell her I want to spec Chinese steel to save money.
8
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Donald Trump is wrong about almost everything because except for his idiot-savant con-man skills, he's extremely dim.
However he is right that allowing Chinese companies to participate in our infrastructure is a threat to our national security. It's so glaringly obvious that even he can see it. The Chinese have a law: Corporations are obligated to turn over information requested by the government. If those corporations are involved with our infrastructure, that infrastructure will be an open book to a hostile foreign government.
Dan Kravitz
28
@Dan Kravitz, You're absolutely right.
2
@Dan Kravitz Indeed. The Chinese law (1986 amendment) “The Right to Financial Privacy Act” and the Chinese Patriot Act (2001), clearly state, as Mr. Kravitz quotes exactly, that “Corporations are obligated to turn over information requested by the government.” Under this law, Chinese government agencies including the Chinese Bureau of Investigation, the Chinese Intelligence Agency, and the Chinese Secret Service can issue National Security Letters, which can have non-disclosure provisions (gag orders) with which corporations must comply or face steep punishments. Many Chinese companies including Apple and Facebook.
5
@Zhanwen Chen
Sarcasm won’t hide the truth. China is a massive threat to world order. What is happening in South China Sea is just a precursor of things to come if not stopped. Anyone looking at nine dash line of South China Sea would find Chinese claims do ludicrous and brazen that they defy belief. China is drunk on some notion that world owes them everything.
7
More Trump trickery. Claim that China will nefariously control telecom equipment in other countries so that China can't compete internationally building 5G networks. This is straight-up economic sabotage. Trump and his administration are acting as though China can't hurt us. He is literally creating the thing he's trying to avoid by pushing China into a corner. China will necessarily get stronger. Bullying won't work, not with China, not with Iran, and not with our allies in Europe. This is a dimwitted chess move. But as someone who's not a Trump fan, I love the timing.
27
@Aurora - completely agree. Trump is creating crises in order to "solve" them. Iran is another example: try to suffocate them until they do something desperate - so you can then claim the need to start a war....the border crisis: withdraw aid from southern poor countries so more of their masses will head for the US border - so you can justify a wall.....
2
Do any of you wonder why cell phone service is so much cheaper in Europe than in the U.S.? Well this is one reason. And people in India are buying cell phones at a furious rate, and their income is one of the lowest. Cell phones are even proliferating in Africa, thanks to Chinese technology.
Go to Walmart and see where all their electronic gear comes from, T.Vs, computers, they are the country's biggest sellers of Chinese products, even lawnmowers. Remember the rush to Walmart, and Investors Business Daily editorials saying how good this was for business.
Now do you think those companies that make all these products are going to come here, build new factories and hire locally at $15 an hour to satisfy a swindler? How many are willing to work at Chinese wages? We have to get rid of this cretin, and his criminal gang the GOP.
81
@David Underwood
You are talking in circles ... all of what you describe occurred way before Trump.
we sold out the American worker -- selling the now cheaper product at the same coat as before .... at larger profits.
This has nothing to do with cost or profit ... we have no choice. China can't be trusted
6
@David Underwood The India market is exploding because of Jio, owned by the richest man in India. Jio has become the third largest telecom operator in India by giving away its 4G feature phone with plans starting below $1 a month. The phone runs WhatsApp, Facebook, and has WiFi. Mukesh Ambani's subsidies have made it unprofitable to run a mobile network in India. Even Jio operates at a loss.
2
@GT China can't be trusted? It would seem that since trump took office neither can the United States be trusted.
3
Presumably, if they had any actual evidence that Huawei had created methods to spy on communications that used their hardware, Trump’s administration would have announced it. Certainly they would have divulged it to our allies to convince them to exclude Huawei from consideration as an equipment supplier for 5G networks. Since it doesn’t appear that these events have occurred, it seems that Trump has generalized concerns, otherwise know as biases, against Chinese products. I get that he wants to pursue a commercial dispute with China and convince our allies to go along (too bad he is also pursuing commercial disputes with them). I get that he wants to preventj China from achieving dominance or even a rivalry with the USA in a growth industry, let alone in a strategically important technology. So explain the dispute on those terms and don’t threaten that our allies will be excluded from our security partnership. We need them to be our allies and partners, not just pawns to be manipulated and probably deceived so that Trump can get his way. Everything with him is coercion. Nothing is ever cooperation. America First is a failing strategy and, if there is long-term danger to us, it is being amplified by Trump, not minimized. In the long run the strength of our friendships is more important than the strength of our opponents.
50
Huh, iPhones, like Trump uses are made in China anyway. I suppose he doesn’t mind it being riddled with Israeli spyware.
7
@Mike Iker
Mike you have it right but the US does not want to explain things in those clear geopolitical terms because it does not want to admit it is failing so badly in the tech race and has made a last-ditch geopolitically motivated push to stymie China's ability to sell their technically superior products anywhere in the world. Hence all the bullying of allies and other foreign countries on these points. (The Chinese aren't the only ones concerned with saving face.)The US would be better off directing its efforts to try to improve the number and quality of its own STEM graduates. Establishing an higher education system with reasonable tuition would be a start.
7
In this case, Trump has really no choice. The stakes are way too high to permit China to control the world's 5G infrastructure.
The USA is not blameless, however. How on earth did we get ourselves in the position of relying totally on foreign suppliers for 5G switches?
133
@Tom
We got ourselves in to this position by deregulation, allowing multiple company mergers in the US for decades and allowing these companies to not only manufacture high tech goods in China for the cheap labor (which increased the profits of these pure unfettered capitalistic companies), but also the US Government, for national security reasons did not block the manufacture of high tech goods in a Communist country which insisted that US companies also give them the design specifications for these products. In turn this allowed Chinese companies to take the lead in a lot of high technologies that the US no longer has the ability to manufacture. Both political parties and administrations did nothing to ban doing high tech business with China, a clear "enemy" (Communist county). All our elected officials have caused the situation we face today. If the "Cold War" with Russia (and China) had NOT ended, I do not think the US government would have allowed American companies to do any high tech business with China. We now rely on foreign suppliers for almost everything we consume today, including food and medications.
53
@Fred M
Right, but it's not the end of the Cold War that caused the circumstances you cite. It was the Reagan era deregulation itself that allowed this to happen.
15
@Tom
There are 2 reasons for this to happen : STEM graduates and talents have gone to Wall Street !!
2
As a software and hardware developer, there are two many back doors suspect vendors can hide problematic code.
The problem is Trump alienated our allies so we cannot organize our opposition to Huawei and China. Already some of our former allies are adopting Huawei hardware which indirectly compromises America.
Once again, a woefully inept, erratic Trump makes a huge mistake. Apparently he learned nothing at the New York Military Academy.
138
@Mr. Techie Indeed. As a software developer, I never trust any software or hardware invented by someone else. Hence, I wrote my my own compiler/languages, built my own operating system, drivers and middleware in tow, hooked up my own mesh net, and operated my own communication protocols. No security risk at all because a software developer should write their own security modules instead of trusting open-source ones!
7
@Mr. Techie also, the case of Edward Snowden probably reveals to us who the true cyber enemy is to American public (and its allies).
3
@Zhanwen Chen another good one
2
I'm typing this on a computer built by a Chinese company that contains a camera and a microphone and could easily contain spyware for confidential content of all kinds. I for the life of me do not understand why American businesses so blithely rely on makers like Lenovo, or why American governments allow companies like Google or IBM to sell infrastructure divisions to the Chinese. As someone else pointed out, there is NO real difference between a Chinese company and the Chinese government.
@MrsWhit
I imagine the Chinese could feel the same way about our products.
3
I will assume that they are holding their breath in the Apple HQ right now. I wonder if Trump is aware of how dependent the big US corporations are of China. If Xi play hardballs, there might not be any iPhones at all on the market in a couple of months. But plenty Huawai's....
3
@Truthseeker
Apple actually tried to build some of the Apple in the US and failed.
2
Apple needs to build iPhones here.
Whatever it takes.
Security of internet hardware is already a joke. The reason https is so important is you can’t trust the routers between you and the endpoint to not get compromised. Sure someone might be snooping on your coffee shop WiFi, but if someone wants to do mass collection of traffic or compromise security on http traffic, the router is the place to do it. All it takes for one of these routers to get compromised is for the person who installs it to not change the default administrator password and from what I’ve read this is disturbingly common. I’m sure our foreign adversaries already have the capability to significantly disrupt our networks.
The impulse to have secure communications equipment is all well and good but we’ll need far more drastic changes and far more draconian regulations if we want to get ourselves out of the security mess in our internet infrastructure. I don’t think our leaders have the technological expertise or the political will to pull it off and even if they did I’m not sure it would be a good thing to have that much government involvement in the internet infrastructure, there are a lot of possible implications for our freedoms there.
2
It has taken more than two years, but finally Trump is doing something I approve of. Tentatively. Not getting our European and Asian allies on board shows the tremendous failure of Trump's foreign policy. And where is the concern regarding foreign interference in our elections?
2
I agree with Trump on this. (!!) For critical IT infrastructure the US needs to have 100% control over the supply chain. There have been too many examples foreign adversaries exploiting vulnerabilities in technology and causing harm to US companies, infrastructure, and people
For those who ask “what about iPhones?” That’s a different scale of problem. An iPhone can cause data loss, but an iPhone isn’t core infrastructure.
For those who bring up NSA and don’t we deserve it because of what they do, that’s ridiculous. All nations attempt to gain advantage. That doesn’t mean we should have to risk putting our infrastructure On/Off switches in another nation’s hands or allowing them to listen in on everything.
I’d rather be behind in speed for a few years than behind in security. The Trump administration is doing the right thing here.
3
@M
Problem is of course that 100% is impossible and that the IT infrastructure in the US (and Europe) are run by private companies that use plenty of core components from all over the world.
And if you put the IT development and infrastructure under the state's umbrella, then you... are no different from China.
In short - this is not a problem that can be solved by any single persons decision or opinion.
Okay, America, everyone knows that these two Canadians (one a former diplomat) are being held on bogus charges of "spying" because Canada detained a Huawei in Vancouver--at the specific request of the American government.
Should Canada hold its breath to see if the US is going defend these two allies?
This is China's test. They want to see if America is actually commitment to the rule of law, democratic principles, and freedom, or, if it is negotiating a trade deal purely on the principle of economic self interest. This is a test to assess America's commitment to its closest allies, versus, an isolationist, nationalist, America that puts trade before principle, money before friendship.
Remember, Trump: The world is watching.
The United States itself has a long record of spying on its allies as well as adversaries, we have no meaningful privacy laws or protections in our own country, and Trump has proven himself much friendlier to dictators than democracies. Not sure why the rest of the world would trust us on this or any topic right now.
6
No evidence whatsoever has been presented to show that Huawei has made any attempt to spy on users of its equipment. Success for Huawei comes not from spying, but from selling its products to customers around the world, and it would not risk its success as a company by irritating its customers through such subterfuge. The US, on the other hand, sold an airliner to China to be the personal transportation of its president, then loaded it with thousands of bugs to spy on his every conversation.
9
Tis my friend US paranoid and fear of losing our supreme world status@Dan Woodard MD
1
@Dan Woodard MD are you an expert in the field of telecom security? If not, what is the basis for your comment?
G5 will enable “the Internet of things”, controlling the entire infrastructure, or most of it. Whoever will make it, will be able to turn off our power supply and make our electric driverless cars crush and our intelligent refrigerators ordering chow main. If it is made by the Chinese, we will become a wholly owned subsidiary of China. I would rather do without G5 for another fifty years.
4
Amen.
1
@Cat Fish - nonsense. Saying China/Huawei controls G5 because their hardware is used to build the network is like saying Samsung controls the cable network because they sold all the TVs.
1
Considering most, if not all, telecom equipment is now made outside of the United States, one has to wonder on how Trump plans to build this equipment in the US. By the way, "telecom equipment" includes smart phones, cell towers, digital switches, the wiring, fiber, phone sets, cabling, fax machines (yes they still exist), and anything else used in telecommunication. Look very closely, and you will find all this stuff is not made in the US.
And, if this is all made in the US, it will be far more expensive. There is no way you will get US citizens to work for the same wages in China or east Asia.
And you though Samsung's new phone of $1000 was expensive; that phone could be closer to $1500.
6
@Nick Metrowsky, So is that any reason to support spyware?
I just got my Huawei Mate SE phone from Amazon two days ago. The price is great compared to the other major brands out there. The battery can last over two days. I can put a lot of apps on the phone without eating up my storage memory. If China is spying on my phone then I'm sure Edward Snowden, hiding away in Russia, must be laughing out loud (lol). I think Trump's move will irritate China even more and make them more reluctant to negotiate faithfully. I also don't see why Huawei would need to buy technology from American companies when they are the one selling that the administration has been warning allies not to buy their 5G technology.
5
Well, 45 has to be right about something? Telecom equipment is so vital to our economy and infrastructure that I agree we should probably be making this stuff 'in house'. I suppose now all we have to worry about is the NSA...
2
@Kyle S. - there's nobody "in-house" that the US telecoms could buy everything needed to build 5G. As another commenter pointed out, it's nearly all made outside the country. Huawei is being blacklisted purely for political gain, not because the US government found anything untoward in their hardware.
Ironic, isn't it that the US government complains about Chinese hardware potentially spying on us - yet the only 'spying hardware' ever to have been discovered was American - Cisco/NSA.
3
Seems to me Rupert Murdoch, a foreigner, ownership of US network that propagates "fake news" has already damaged national security.
22
@bmck
Murdoch bought his US citizenship.
3
If there's a US 5G solution then that's reason enough. Buy American.
2
Marco Rubio gave the game away yesterday when he stated that it's about protecting US manufactuers from the competition.
oops
7
I admit I don't know how all this stuff works but haven't we already let the cow out of the barn by buying Chinese computers and cell phones?
2
Is the same concern for National security given to national election security. Or is it okay to pressure countries such as Ukraine to investigate political rivals sons?
3
How many back doors are there in Windows software? We know that NSA has a list of faults they do not divulge so they can hack computer systems around the world.
4
How ironic that the Trump administration has done virtually nothing about Russian election meddling but is suddenly so protectionist about China’s cyber threat. Only cares when our prez deems it politically beneficial. What a travesty.
10
I shall continue to buy Huawei, this is sent from my Honor phone. Today I prefer to be spied on by China than Trump,who is really dangerous.
8
@MH, China.
No second guesses as to where Ericson and Nokia get a great deal of their hardware from.
2
If China, its commerce practises, its SOEs, its security apparatus, its army and its imperialistic vision are the problem, then why did Trump not build a coalition with other countries to put pressure on China? Instead he has attacked the European countries, Canada and Mexico while cosying up with Putin, Kim and the Saudis.
This is not making America Great Again, this is posturing to rile up his base that knows no better.
6
And where are the captains of the US tech industry in all of this - Cook, who who made his bones ironically getting the Chinese to produce the world’s most popular smartphone, Musk who can’t quite get mass production of a personal vehicle off the ground, or Zuckerberg wasting all of his and everyone else’s time and energy on a non-productive and personally intrusive software platform.
Perhaps these three individuals, and the others like them such as Gates, as well as the mobile phone service providers such as ATT and Verizon, all of whom have financially benefited so extraordinarily from consumer technology, should stand up and be counted as a group to resolve this 5G production problem.
1
“Led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, American officials have warned allies for months that the United States would stop sharing intelligence if they use Huawei”
“Allies”? Is Pompeo kidding? “Allies”. He’s told Canada, which Trump has called a “national security threat”, to not use Huawei gear. A country that Trump has called a danger to the US because it’s industry makes steel that is competitive to US manufacturers. So it commits a hostile act towards Canada then wants help? Wants “allies”. And as for sharing information, Canada hosts a chain of northern radar stations that protect the US from REAL enemies launching missiles, principally from Russia. Costs Canada billions. Maybe Canada should close them down and stop “sharing” information. After all the country is a security threat. And clearly NOT an “ally”. As for signing the new NAFTA, (that’s the deal where Canada imports more from the US than it exports), Canadians will never sign it until the US stops imposing tariffs on steel and acting like Canada is a “security threat”. That would be political suicide for Trudeau and Pompeo better realize it.
10
Even if Hauwei has a two year lead wrt 5G technology ... humanity has managed for 10,000 years without 5G, so I suspect we can wait another 2 years for more trust-worthy suppliers to catch-up.
11
@B Risk As always, that is up to the customers.
@B Risk - why is Huawei not trustworthy? No, really, present a single fact that makes it so? The only thing that the US government has produced is words. They have not shown a single "backdoor" to US allies whom it warned not to use Huawei. Not a single one.
Meanwhile, and as I've pointed out elsewhere, the US has been found to be spying on other countries, including its supposed allies with American networking equipment.
Also, meanwhile, "trustworthy" goes both ways. This administration has been completely untrustworthy with regards to agreements that were previously signed. If other countries can't trust the US to abide by contracts it signs, why should it be trusted in the proclamations it makes about supposed threats from Chinese telecom manufacturers?
1
Aren't all apple devices made in China? Ban them to, I would say.
9
That's not a trade or security issue any more that is a medical condition playing out as a power play.
Maybe the US should close down all contacts to the outside world and hope that this way it will become safe again.
The US has no proof for it's allegations against any of the imaginated foes at all but the Trump administration still tries to impress its view on the rest of the world.
Fine, so no more intelligence from the US and no more intelligence from other countries to the US.
So the US wants to be totally isolated.
Give it to them and send all US troops and other personnel home.
And yes, build a wall around the US homeland, 20m high and complete tight and secure.
Somehow the paranoia of the Trump administration looks like the movie plot from an old Stallone movie named "Judge Dredd" but in no way like a modern way of running a country.
14
Actually, we have ample proof. I rarely agree with anything this administration does, but on this particular issue, this is the right thing to do.
6
@dude small Their goal is political stability and economic growth. Why would they want to irritate their biggest customer? If they defeated us militarily who would buy their products?
1
@Jeffrey Schantz - please point us to a single piece of evidence that Huawei's telecom equipment contains backdoors designed to let the Chinese government control said equipment. Just one - ought to be easy, given that there's 'ample' proof.
1
Is the Trump Administration taking this more extreme step because other countries, including most countries in Western Europe, are not buying its nightmare scenario accusations against Huawei? And why is the US government picking on couple of foreign companies in particular.
Certainly, there may be a risk of surveillance, but the potential costs of keeping tracking of what the whole World is doing in their electricity usage, telephone calls, etc. etc are so high that it would not be cost prohibitive. What we witness in the US instead are private companies who put cookies in our computers to track what we are streaming, what we are buying, as well as contents of our emails.
4
I think there are 2 points need to be fully stressed:
1. How 5G is essential to national security? The answer is fortunately very essential to national security and once you control this power, there is literally no secret ahead of you: You can steal monitor, and surveillant everything.
2. Based on the present system of China (a very centralized system that controls everything, literally has a law to ask all entities to do everything for the Gov....), and their records(stealing, spying...), to what extent you can trust them.
Now the conclusion is simple: Trump is doing the right thing!
6
@Nobody
I have been to China many times. As far as I know, the NYT is blocked there. Right? So be careful with your VPN!
Ultimately, hacking and spying is being carried out by both sides. The US can't be said to be a good actor and neither is China. However, a trade/tariff war won't benefit either side.
Megalomania seems to be the root problem.
3
@Louis Paulussen
What you've felt it's by all means understandable. True, all these big ITs can be used as weapons by their governments, and it's, unfortunately, no other harm-proof choices...You have to use such services....however, who will you obviously choose from? China(communists) vs Westerns? Even though being a Chinese, I support Trump, because I know exactly how Chinese companies, people, or entities, they don't have a single choice at all, whenever there is Gov. approaching you to ask for patriotic contributions to mother Party~ at least the bully-U.S has some balance and check...especially for very essential filed like 5G, you got be wake up and do something swiftly before it's too late. Now what you need do is quite obvious. Of course, the U.S. has to work out a solution with allies...
Lets look at it from the other side. Recent articles mention that the NSA used flaws in Microsoft windows to infiltrate computers in other countries. It is assumed that the flaws were discovered by the NSA and not put in there by Microsoft. Would you then agree that all other countries in the world should ban the use of Microsoft Windows, Google Android, Apple OIS, Cisco, Intel etc. because the above example plus the NSA breaking the security of Apple phones, the Israeli security service apparently hacking Whatsapp show that these programs and hardware companies can be easily targeted by the NSA and forced to cooperate to spy on others?
The real issue is not security. It is simply that the US government is annoyed that US companies can not compete at the moment with the Huawei Technology. The real answer should be that the US government should work together with industry to develop and stay at the forefront of technology. It even looks like we are passed the turning point and that development in China is in multiple areas is now ahead of development in the US. I like American people as well as Chinese people, but successive American governments have reduced to trust of friends in them and Donald Trump is showing friends and foes alike that the US government can not be trusted.
52
A couple of questions. If Chinese telecom companies use their equipment to spy, does it not stand to reason that telecom companies from other countries, including the US, have similar ability? If so, does it imply that all countries should develop their own equipment for security reasons?
A large volume of American branded gear is manufactured in China. What is the guarantee that such gear does not have any installation in them which the American designers of the gear had not intended? Given the level of sophistication such devices may not be detectable by normal QA processes.
6
@Karthik Kumar
The answer, unfortunately, is YES, technologically they all have the possibility to do so. Now the option is, who you will choose...At least, democracy has a limited power to do so, such as Apple refused some U.S government order....Just like another similar question: What's the problem with China/Soviet being dominate in the world.
1
@Karthik Kumar Spyware can be detected, just as Chinese technicians detected the bugs planted by the US government in the airliner sold to China as its presidential transport aircraft. So far no bugs have been detected, and indeed they would defeat Huawei's goal of selling its products around the world.
1
I wonder how Trump conveyed the memo to Mr Ross, maybe by encrypted telegraph? That’s about Ross’ vintage, and I don’t think Huawei was around then either.
2
Right. Probably with the exception of Russian- or Ukrainian-made telecom gear.
6
The anti-Sino racism on this comment board is absolutely revolting. I guess both it and the election of Trump have revealed a great deal about what Americans truly are.
The only hacking/spying that exists involving Huawei was when the NSA hacked them, as documented by the NYTimes. And the NSA found nothing.
But I guess if you can't compete with them, then just use force and fiat to ban them from your market. I guess it's only a free market when Americans dominate it.
Maybe those Europeans are smarter than you think. They're obviously not fooled by Trump.
27
@Tom Just as comparison: there are bans on foreign made components in military equipment too. The fear of being exposed to manipulations for instance through the Chinese government is real and the companies this is about are definite subsidies of the Chinese government - which is not democratic and acts increasingly “hostile” (....see Venezuela...). I am certainly opposing Mr.Trump - but he has a point in this case.
7
The UK and other Europeans know what is going on and understand the growing US hysteria towards China. Both the UK government and Germany are using Huawei or will despite enormous hair on fire threats from the US. The fact the former head (just a few years out) of the Brit's (GCHQ) their NSA has said the American Huawei claims are "nonsense" is all you need to know. But of course his comments were not very much reported in the US - censorship and the "manufacture" of opinion as Chomsky observed is done more subtly in the US.
7
@Thorsten Fleiter - yes, there are restrictions on military equipment. Let those restrictions stand with respect to 5G too: don't use hardware manufacturers you don't trust onto your military networks. But the US is telling other countries not to let Huawei build out *any* of their 5G networks - public networks! That's ridiculous. Especially with zero proof that Huawei equipment has any nefarious backdoors.
2
Next stop: China banning Apple products (or some other individual or class of US tech makers) for security purposes. We’re in for rounds of middle school tit for tat.
9
This sounds like a pretense, to win a war over 5G. If the US are so fearful of chinese spies, they should not buy anything related to electronics, especially computers. How many computers are built on US soil these days? No, wait, how many computers are _not_ built in China?
As usual, national security serves business purposes.
7
US companies need to stop hiring Chinese nationals as their loyalties clearly lie elsewhere. Can you imagine China's top IT firms being filled with white employees?
9
Insisting that the US must "win" at the 5G competition, yet disregarding public education, or rather education as a whole, and installing Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, whose only goal is to sprinkle private, theological/Christian education throughout the country. Last I checked, technical knowledge of 5G systems and networks wasn't part of what was taught in the Bible, so good luck with that.
Gee, I don't know, maybe if he screams "win" loud enough, perhaps it will happen?
18
EU should follow this ban , China has abundantly proven its willingness to spy on western democracy and rob them from their technologies
4
@Gadea
"China has abundantly proven its willingness to spy on western democracy"
So did the NSA.
12
Tech theft is indeed almost a cultural thing in china, but state spying is an other matter alltogether and the different US intelligence operations/raids on Huawei found absolutely nothing.
So much for "abundantly proven".
Unlike for example the widespread and scandalous US spying of its european allies in recent years...
7
The executive order was “agnostic,”
words are up for grabs
meanings shirk definition
cherry blossoms fake
2
It’s a bit twisted that a US president literally owned by a Russian dictator is attempting to save America from the evil Chinese
20
"Mr. Trump issued an executive order ..."
The actual text is impossible to find with the vague description given in the article.
The Times needs to do its job by reporting the SPECIFICS of the executive order:
1. Title.
2. Number.
3. Link to the text.
5
Why did it take so long?
2
All of the radiation from 5G can't be good for your DNA.
2
The US , by far, is the greatest arms trafficker in the world. It would surely be more in line with national and international security if we stopped selling or giving away such weapons?
3
I know, it's tough for a nation of wireless internet addicts.
But what is 5G, really? How many Americans know, or care? Is it worthy of all this urgency and drama? Or is it just the latest smoke and mirrors -- hype-- from the massively influential wireless tech industry, playing into our naive faith that newer and faster is better, regardless of social cost.
5G is certainly a dream come true for elected politicians, who predictably salivate at a chance to appear as if, under their leadership, government is moving America forward, while they themselves do none of the heavy lifting or due diligence required to protect us or our investment. Not to mention the bonus these representatives receive by way of assuring the continuation of the telecom industry's already significant campaign contributions.
And the Huawei "no spy" agreement? Worthless, if not downright insulting. When it comes to China, that covenant is meaningless if the Chinese government wants to do otherwise. What would America do then? Change everything out to 6G? And who will provide us with that?
My guess is that Huawei and China (not to mention Verizon et al.) rightly hope that our addiction to consumer products and wireless technology, combined with Americans' massive gullibility (look who's president), could swing public opinion to their side.
As for me, I don't need to speed my way around streamed entertainment sites wherever I go. To the contrary.
9
@Sachi G - a lot of guesses and opinion. Short on facts, just like the US's claim of Huawei being a security threat.
Given that we are talking about Chinese made networking products, there seems to be a very high probability that China is forcing the Huawei to install back doors that could be used to spy and ultimately shut down our networks. This would not be out of line with China's goals or methods. What is sad is that US businesses sold us out to move a lot of manufacturing to China. Now they cry over loss of IP and complain that American companies can't manufacture things. These companies ultimately bear the blame for the situation we are in. Perhaps we should play China's game and subsidize the construction of US electronics manufacturing facilities.
15
>>> ". . . there seems to be a very high probability that China is forcing the Huawei to install back doors that could be used to spy and ultimately shut down our networks. This would not be out of line with China's goals or methods."
But, of course, it would be entirely out of line with the goals and methods of, for instance, our NSA. Right?
Have many of Our Fellow Americans been living under rocks for long periods?
5
@Todd Johnson
Just disengage - as soon as possible. It is disingenuous for them to claim that their success is all due to hard work while stealing and hacking all the time. On top of that the claims that their political system is superior than west’s. The very systems which laid the foundation of modern life as they unleashed freedom and creativity.
Let them live without West and see how far they get ahead.
3
@Todd Johnson - "These companies ultimately bear the blame for the situation we are in..." - again, that victim mentality that lets you absolve yourself of any guilt.
In reality, ultimately you (American citizens) bear the blame. You decided to save a couple dollars by buying the the cheaper Chinese/Vietnamese/Japanese/etc. made TV instead of the more more expensive American-made one - even as your brothers/sisters lost their job in the TV plant next door. You're the ones who voted (or more likely didn't vote) the corrupt politicians into office or stood idly by as uncorrupted ones became corrupted by corporate interests and lobbyists. You are the folk who never read facts about your politicians or insist that reporters ask meaningful questions and, instead, choose to believe everything these people preach to you....just so you can more quickly go back to watching your favorite show or sports event.
Among first-world countries, the US has the most pathetic voter turnout. And the ones that do vote, frequently don't know much at all about who they're voting for - they just vote for the guy that told them "I'm for guns" or "I'm against abortion" or "I will Make America Great Again".
It is no surprise that Trump elected the person he did for education secretary - it's best to keep the masses uneducated and hooked on entertainment.
Europe and other Western allies should create their own telecommunications network company in order to protect themselves from both China and the NSA.
6
That is exactly what Merkel said today after Macron said it yesterday.
They are becoming convinced that the USA is less reliable than it used to be perhaps getting caught bugging the UK Labour Party offices and Ms Merkel’s phone wasn’t the smartest move.
Can’t Blame Trump for that.
Yet their is hardly a nation in Europe or North America which isn’t irked by their Auto manufacturing being considered a security threat.
The Notion that your Nato and UN voting block allies are a security threat doesn’t win many friends. On top of that the Trump admins tries to force US tariff on the EU trade with Iran without a UN agreement.
Wouldn’t it seem obvious that the thought will it be us next must enter their thoughts can Trump be trusted?
That’s the question Merkel asks as they contemplate a united E U armed forces.
4
Hmm . . . where do the posters who insist that the US must be protected from Huawei think "American" telecom equipment vendors manufacture their equipment? Or "European" and "Japanese" companies like Nokia, Ericsson, NEC?
3
There is not a SHRED of evidence presented by the US that equipment from Huawei and ZTE poses a security threat, not a shred. This equipment is deployed throughout the world, and no one has reported any evidence of spyware or back doors. Of course, US intelligence will say that they can't reveal the evidence. This comes from the people who swore there were WMDs in Iraq and that Iran is planning to attack the US. This is simply US economic bullying at its most blatant. US attempts to coerce other countries into not buying Chinese equipment is an unfair trade practice. (and before I get comments on this, no, China is not blameless in trade, neither country is).
In fact, as reported by the Times, it was the US that broke into Huawei's network https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/world/asia/nsa-breached-chinese-servers-seen-as-spy-peril.html
Instead of growing American technology through innovation, the US government prefers to focus on impeding the growth of foreign technology. This will not help the growth of American technology in the long run.
15
"... no one has reported any evidence of spyware or back doors."
The real problem is that no one has reported what TESTING for "spyware or back doors" has been done.
"Of course, US intelligence will say that they can't reveal the evidence."
Anyone can run tests on a router. And, in principle, it should be possible to extract the firmware and analyze it.
1
@WCV: Actually, testing for spyware HAS been done. I was an American employee of Huawei for six years, now retired. British Telecom has been one of Huawei's largest customers. Before they invested in Huawei equipment, BT partnered with Cambridge University (with cooperation from Huawei) to thoroughly deconstruct the equipment. They found nothing suspicious.
I agree with your comment. I'm quite sure that many carriers have thoroughly tested Huawei equipment. It would be helpful if some of these results could be made public.
7
@ShenBowen
Sadly America is now a fact and science free zone, particularly when it comes to China. Many Americans "feel" this is the truth so that's enough. Don't try and muddy the water with facts. China is the last socially sanctioned opportunity for Americans to really let their xenophobia and fear of the other loose. It's not logical but it sure feels good.
2
EXACTLY what Rush said today that Trump should do.
1
Trump is acting like America's CEO--butting into this, that, and the other commercial realm with knee-jerk, shoot-from-the-hip ideas. He really does think he's sitting in a big corner executive office, with all of America as his Direct Reports, taking nonstop meetings with industry leaders and telling them and the world what to do. I do begin to conclude that corporate CEOs are a timid and go-along group, so long as their stock doesn't tank, and they still get the special-talent immigrants they want from China, India, Germany, etc. Sad.
4
I'm sure Europeans prefer the NSA hacking Merkel's phone over Huawei.
19
This is the sole great decision that the otherwise despicable Mr. Trump has made.
2
@Mack great trick. Get everyone looking at China and Russia is forgotten.
2
@Jennifer Hayward. Over the years, the threat and cost to the United States by counterfeit electronic components manufactured by the very same people in China has been nearly a trillion dollars. Clinton, Bush, and Obama took no effective action. Now that most functionality is resident in software, firmware, and in network devices, the particularized threat posed by Huawei (and similar firms controlled by totalitarian adversaries) is incalculable.
1
Part of what's driving this is that Huawei is having some success in selling this equipment to other countries, including some of our NATO allies.
But set the security issue aside for a moment. This is a big deal; the whole world is quickly moving from the 4G to the 5G telecommunications standard for cell phone networking, and everyone needs this stuff. And what's bothering me is that not long ago the U.S. designed and sold pretty-much all the world's high-tech equipment, even if we may have done some manufacturing in places like China.
We were the technology kings, and everyone else bought our stuff, because it was the best and sometimes the only alternative. But now, where are Cisco and our other vendors? It seems we're no longer the leader, having lost our place to a repressive dictatorship.
So how did we lose our lead? And how can we get it back? President Trump likes to think of himself as some kind of champion of the disaffected middle class, and in fact his ability to convince them he was going to go to bat for them largely explained his razor-thin victory in 2016. But what is he doing to help us regain our worldwide commercial and technology lead, other than bluff and bluster and send out tweets?
So we'll have almost two more years of inaction until January of 2021. And as of today we have 24 Democratic presidential candidates, some of whom want to sell "socialism." Sorry guys, the one of you who gets my vote is the one who makes fixing these problems job #1.
6
Even if there no evidence that Huawei s components have any backdoors, would you want to be on watch 24/7 for decades to come to ensure that they haven’t added any?
These are the people who are known to go back on their words.
4
@Jay trump goes back on his word multiple times a week. Not bothered by that?
4
Maybe we should ban Trumpet's made-in-China iPhone too!
3
5G technology can’t be surrendered to China. No debate needed.
6
@Ted
It won't be - at least not until China coughs up some big bucks to Trump's re-election campaign.
3
Why is it such a puzzle what Trump is up to with the Russians and the authoritarians? It’s all about China. Trumps cold war never ended re China. It’s all Realpolitik against China. And with good reason. Or so it seens to me. A working theory. That goes for the ‘secret’ meetings with Putin too. One word: China.
2
This was a necessary move, but unfortunately there are no US manufacturers of 5G equipment so we will be 100% on European companies such as Nokia and Ericsson....
3
@Dersh One imagines there soon will be. Lol
2
While in China, people are still worshipping Apple, though with the same configuration, Huawei is much cheaper. I hope that under the Trump's pressure, Chinese can help Huawei.
5
Putting the security issue aside and focusing on the economic issues, I do believe that currency exchange rate needs to be front and center. Like stock market prices, currency values fly up and down at a whim, are the subject of speculation, and are subject to manipulation through small strategic purchases as well as big nation players simply anchoring the price by decree.
One remarkable change since lMarch 2018 is that the Yuan has fallen from 6.3 yuan/dollar to 6.9 yuan/dollar today. That's an 8% appreciation of the dollar. Against a basket of world currencies the dollar has appreciated 7%. This is bad news for US exporters from Ag to Mfg to Tech Services.
If US companies make components (for 5G or whatever) simply to sell inside the US, they won't have the scale or motivation to be truly competitive. If the exchange rate were to drop to 6.1 yuan (c.f. Nov 2014) and stay there (infl adj) for an extended period, US exports would be competitive and show growth (as they were in 2014).
A healthy balanced economy is a foundation of overall security. Whatever decisions are made with respect to Huawei, however much China does or doesn't open up domestic markets, the US needs to place more importance on an export competitively priced dollar.
2
Donald’s tweet is unfiltered. It’s security threat more than Huawei.
3
When you lose the fight, you play slander. What a GREAT nation!
8
Exactly how do you determine foreign made equipment that is a threat to national security? All of 5G equipment makers, including Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia, are foreign. Just say ban all Chinese telecom equipment if that is what is meant.
6
How many backdoors in Cisco’s gear designed for the US to exploit?
6
His unhinged views on China goes back a long time. Thank goodness Europe, New Zealand and others can see the fanaticism behind this and have decided to use Huawei in selected safe parts of their 5G rollout. Gloating about destroying China by Trump also involves destroying the economy of most other export dependant countries. Nothing good will come from this .
10
@ken China has proven itself a brutal expansionist authoritarian state. Trump is rationally protecting US interest (and Western ones). And I’m a liberal Democrat.
3
@RB
And the US has been a saint? Post second world war and the use of US power to influence politics and wars in the middle east , AFrica , Asia and SOuth America has left millions dead . The Pentagon papers is only a small example of despotism at its worst. What is happening in the middle east in Yemen and to the Israeli Palestinian peace accord now once again displays the brutality of US influence. The incarceration of people in the US is brutal. US Gun laws is immoral. Morality between China and what the US has revealed is only relative. Thank goodness for Europe which has shown a higher standard of global morality. I prefer German and French morality right now in foreign affairs to US morality and hope my country takes a more independent stance once we get rid of our right wing Gvt on Saturday.
6
@RB
how do you define "brutal"? No one is more brutal than Trump. and, i assmue we all like "expansion" or "development"? Be open-minded.
1
I am not if I am more angry or more dismayed by NYTimes’ continuing biased reporting.
Why can’t you say US bans such firms instead of Trump doing it.
1
@Jay
Easy. Despite his title, Donald Trump does not represent the US.
@Jay because Trump does not represent us. He is destroying our country.
1
From demagogue to dictator, it's right in you face, right now.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Trump got this one right. Huawei has a long, tawdry history of stealing patents and related advanced technology, and using it in their products with the government's blessing. Furthermore, the US government as well as many other governments have detected numerous instances of compromised code built into their products for eavesdropping and spying purposes. Obama should have issued this executive order during his tenure, since this has been common knowledge for years.
8
@PN NSA backdoor hacking? Kill switches in military equipment? Stop buying US?
3
I wonder if there is an aggregate number which US has lost to China over the years. They talk about 350-500 billion dollars of IP losses every year. Couple with that 4-500 billion from trade deficits. So 700-1000 billion a year. Over last 15 years we are talking about 8-10 trillion dollars at least.
In other words we lose 2-3 billion every day.
We all such congratulate ourselves for being so naive and timid.
1
@Zhanwen Chen
The evidence lies in increase in number of billionaires in China, the gleaming new cities and the massive modern infrastructure.
But your sarcasm has no value. US should decouple from parasitic China as soon as possible and let them live alone with their ill gotten gains.
1
@Zhanwen Chen Right on! Lol
@Zhanwen Chen: You forgot to count the US invention of the noodle. You can add another trillion for that. Noodles remain quite popular in China.
(thanks for your comment, I enjoyed it)
1
The Brennen Center notes that the 1976 "Emergency powers [Act] cover almost every imaginable subject area, including the military, land use, public health, trade, federal pay schedules, agriculture, transportation, communications, and criminal law." The average length of an Act is 9 years.
Once an emergency is declared, the president has almost an unfettered ability to wield unlimited control over our country. After the Act is invoked, it allows the president to bypass Congress on many levels.
Imagine we are in a war, it's Nov. 2020 and trump has lost the election, the Act is still alive and mr. trump decides that as part of that national emergency, a change in government leadership is "too risky" "at this time."
Who are you going to call? Mitch?
4
I actually support this.
8
@Citizen as do I.
2
Good move, hopefully followed up by removing defective imported pharmaceuticals, such as noncomplying Indian products, from our system
17
"Trump Moves to Ban Foreign Telecom Gear, Targeting Huawei in Battle With China"
Ah yes, Trump's national emergency of the day! The phony president is nothing more than the infant who cried wolf. Drunk on power, this despicable imitation of a human being is like a pre-schooler (a slow one at that), who has been handed the entire world for a toy. He will continue to stomp on it and throw it against the wall until it is irreparably broken. Naturally, the goose-stepping complicit GOP could stop him in his tracks, but it won't. They'd rather trade handfuls of PAC money, perks and power for American democracy. Traitors to their oaths of office, every one!
10
American Intelligence is a contradiction in terms
7
I agree with Trump on this and not much else. As an expert in the field, we would be stupid to give the Chinese an open back door into our telecoms. As for them being better at 5G technically? That is simply incorrect. Please. We do not need this company to roll out 5G.
13
@Wilmington Ed The CULPRIT here us US academia. To meet their ‘research needs’ and ‘budgets’ foreign students from India China Israel [Russia?] are a major part of full fare paying students. Soon enough they get research assistantships - and then professorships. You will get ‘full loyalty to US’ in the next generation of the immigrant family - but many first gen [ie those born overseas] have ‘split loyalty’.
Trump is governing like a blind dog in a butcher shop.
1
I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter . . .
- Trump Feb 21, 2019
I know tech better than anyone, & technology . . .
- Trump Dec. 22, 2018
Wait till Putin tells him they have 7G.
3
@Blue in Green, Let's treat the issue as it is, and don't muddle the water with your irrelevant Putin punt. For a change, Trump is right on the mark on this.
7
Under Chinese law, Huawei must obey orders of the Communist Party of China.
3
I guess he doesn't care that China may ban Apple, Boeing, Deere and other US companies from China in retaliation (probably after selling their xache of US Treasury bonds.)
@Eero
Hmmm. So US should just roll over. It is exactly this timidity that has led to trillions of dollars of trade deficits over years. Not to mention brazen IP thefts, hacking and currency manipulation.
6
This is maybe the first Trump EO I actually agree with.
Its common sense.
7
We expect 5G networks to make our life rich and happy. But 5G also networks have also risks not only to our life but also to national security. It is reasonable that tech companies of American and its allies avoid using equipment of Huawei and other Chinese technology. The development of 5G should be promoted by democratic countries which weigh human right.
4
I wasn't much of a believer that Trump Derangement Syndrome actually existed, but after reading many of these comments I'm no longer so sure about that...
1
The vague nature of this order makes it a recipe for graft. Don't put it past Trump to line his own and his family's pockets in applying and exempting companies and countries from this ban.
1
Huawei had it there for a moment, let's see where this goes.
You can tell by the way his staff are unable to answer even the most basic questions that they were totally blindsided by this. He just saw something that triggered him and did it.
This isn't an Executive Order, those are created by Presidents after much deliberation and planning. This is a Decree, the type given by King's or Dictator's.
2
It's somewhat ironic that the U.S. President is telling U.S. companies what to do about Chinese companies that can't be trusted because the Chinese President tells them what to do.
7
ok Nokia bought alcatel Lucent after Lucent merged with alcatel. Nokia is now systematically laying off its entire former alcatel Lucent mobile design staff. why? all the jobs are going to China for the cheap engineering staff. but Nokia still sells to the US. meanwhile our European colleagues are state protected. we are such suckers. that my friend is how we are left w/o alternatives.
4
Now America is talking. Without the US market access, the Chinese economy will go bankrupt just like in the 1970. China will become poor again and their GDP will shrink. They will become a third world country like they used. Yay, America is numero uno. That's why no countries in the world should fxxx with the USA. MAGA.
5
@nitama, China today is not the China in the 1970s before its open door policy. It's the second largest economy today. In fact, China doesn't rely much on direct investment these days anymore, and is a far bigger exporter of capital (to fund or underwrite all those infrastructure projects around the world). So, yes it's nice to have supporters like yourself from Indonesia cheering US on, but your comment is pretty off-base.
1
It was Patriotic Farmers. Now all Patriotic Americans should sacrifice and pay the higher price for a jingoistic maniac. Securing the infrastructure needs cooler heads and technology, not short-sighted protectionism.
3
I was once an Australian who admired and respected your country - now I have only an intense dislike and fear of America.
2
@susan rattray, Not sure if there are that many people care about what Australia thinks anymore these days. The way that Australia has beholden itself to Chinese capital and a market for all its commodities exports, Australia might even become a de facto colony of China some day. Be mindful of that.
5
Without a massive, unprecedented revolution in the United States to reshape our economy and our livelihoods, the Chinese will have us by the short hairs. In many ways, they do already: much of this is too late to make any real long term difference, but it sure sounds great on the nightly news and over breakfast in the diners. You can hear it now: "Trump's out there givin' the Chinese what-for, makin' America great again!". So much to celebrate; so little grape kool-aid with which to brainwash our friends and neighbors. It misses the point. It hastens the end of a way of life.
Everything was fun and games in the 80s and 90s when we extended to corporate America the freedom to partner with governments abroad who, at the time, posed no economic or strategic risk to the United States. At the same time, we deconstructed broad pieces of our economy, rendering it difficult to meaningfully employ human capital in the middle 3/5ths of the income spectrum; i.e., the middle class was decimated. The unfortunate distractions precipitated by 9/11 and wars that followed served to cement into place the permanent rise of new and significant challenges to American economic hegemony. The die was cast. But the game need not be over.
China has significant capabilities and resources which, if left unchallenged, may well largely define the conduct of human society on this Earth for generations to come. The United States has these same abilities. We must rise, reorganize, and COMPETE.
5
So other nations should ban telecommunications equipment made by American companies because it can be used by the US government to spy on them?
The US should first do something about all the components for its military hardware that are sourced from China. That is obviously a more direct threat.
4
Both Nokia and Ericsson have extensive 4/5G business deals, as well as equipment mfg capacities, in China. They are Scandinavian in name, but with a lot of MIC in guts. Cisco too also has a lot of manufacturing exposure in China.
Trump's plan: 5G (non-MIC product), or bust...gonna be difficult.
It’s worth including telecom equipment manufactured in China at US tech firms’ factories. Check whether Chinese firms will buy US telecom products that are made in US! Maybe they don’t trust us.
2
American corporations seeking short-term profits have encouraged Chinese companies to eat our lunch for quite a while now.
Oh, now maybe not such a great idea? But, hey, it was profitable!
2
“...there are no US manufacturers capable of making this equipment.” I believe there are, but they cannot do it at a competitive price. I don’t like subsidies, but why not if it supports national security? Instead Trump’s ban supports employment in China, but not in America!
3
@CFH
Yes there are. For instance, it was reported some time ago that Japan's Rakuten, its 4th operator just entering the business, chose Altiostar schemes for its 5G investment. Rakuten claimed the choice makes it competitive citing significantly lower cost due to Altiostar's reliance on generic computing power, instead of manufacturing dedicated hardware.
This is simply protectionism.
The Trump administration has made up bogus claims about Chinese spying, which have not convinced other countries, except for Canada and Australia.
Trump wants to protect American manufacturers from legitimate competition.
I can see the day, in 10 or 15 years, when the US and China have entirely separate communications systems and other high-tech products. Two, separate, self-contained economies.
2
In principle I am okay with this, but in practice I am not sure it is enforceable. Typically I believe in free trade, unlike our Tariff-Man In-Chief, but having control of our communications is pretty darn important to national security.
A bold move to stop China from taking advantage of the open economies. Usually, free markets without restrictions work, but Huawei is clearly supported by China's government with strategic purpose, while disguising as a normal company. So simply ban it.
17
@Wayne
I read somewhere US needs to completely decouple from China. Just as a host needs to get rid of a parasite.
We don’t want its money, companies, people, students or products.
4
Wow. Capitalism rules, except when other nations beat us to the latest tech. US companies are nowhere near China's (neither is Europe's). They are ready to give us 5G but "oh no!" that can't happen. Let's face it: we are losing to China in more ways than one. And though that's a big concern for obvious reasons, it also will lead to the US getting more behind, if we adopt policies like this. We can't beat China (except militarily, for now, and who wants to go there?), so we should play by their rules and benefit, economically.
5
Give me a break. So it's OK for China to ban the import/use of American social media platform, but we can't ban the use of Chinese telecom gear specifically designed with a backdoor to allow eavesdropping? Or how about China's blatant disregard for American IP per the rules laid out by the WTO, which they agreed to? Make no mistake. We are in an economic cold war with China. They are not playing by the rules. Time to play hard ball.
22
China does not ban American social media companies, but to operate in China, they just have to agree to follow the terms and conditions. Do not expect to be exempted from local laws.
On breaking WTO rules, if have evidence against China can always commence a case in WTO. Like the recent WTO case initiated by US against EU that ended with WTO decision found both EU and USA had unfairly subsidized Boeing and Airbus.
Same applies to allegations of IP theft. Have evidence start a case.
Bare allegations without lodging a case and establish the claim with evidence maybe sufficient for propaganda purposes to feed ill informed and/or people with preconceived bias.
2
@Father of One
Agreed on the cold war analogy. No one's playing by the (unwritten) rules. China's just smarter and better about it.
China could and will play the same game. They can also say no to American tech companies: Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc., in the interest of national security. It will hurt their bottom line, stock prices, as well as American jobs. Is there a better way of resolving this than to simply ban one another’s tech equipment? Surely, there must be a better way.
3
@Ben H
Be sure of one thing, and that is that Donald is not doing anything with the motive of helping the American people plural, He is only trying to help one American, singular. Every thing he does at the moment is done to stay out of jail and he can only do that by staying in the WH. By hook or by crook particularly by crook.
1
@Ben H LOL oyu must be new to the world and never stepped foot in China.
Google is banned in China. So are many other western technology firms. Microsoft was ripped of for decades until Windows 10 came along.
Many Youtube channels are banned, VPN's are illegal.
China does not want to have free control of information. In fact CHina announced it has placed 13 million people on blacklists for buying plane or train tickets or use of other public services, banned from employment and use face recognition. Soon you will be screaming for your Minority Report as in China you are convicted of being a bad person because you posted something the government doesn't like.
1
Finally, an action that I agree with. Huawei has been developing and embedding network hardware for decades. They have been suspected of enabling their chips and systems to do all kinds of nefarious things to our networks (from listening to disrupting) should they decide to do so.
11
@Cgaar
"suspected" is the key word here. I haven't seen any evidence announced by anyone.
5
@Cgaar Indeed, there has been numerous well-publicized hard evidence that Huawei has spied on countries, including ones that are more well-known than NSA Prism program on Cisco equipment used to spy on Germany et al.
10
@Zhanwen Chen
Ok so US did all that. I guess all that justifies Chinese hacking, theft and parasitic Trade practices.
1
"But even if Huawei is banned from the United States, it will likely control 40 to 60 percent of the networks around the world...in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia where it holds huge economic influence."
Influence: something America is quickly losing globally.
20
I think this is the first thing Trump has done that I find no reason to criticize his efforts. It really is "agnostic." But then, in the greater scheme of things, social media and the "internet of things," combined with AI has both greased and steepened the already slippery slope civilization's slide into anarchy. The future belongs to those with the fewest scruples, morals and inhibitions.
15
China does not want to be our adversary, but to sell things to us. The only adversaries that I can think of are N. Korea and Russia. But Trump is trying to make China an adversary, and start a war with Iran.
12
@dr. c.c. Really? China has a plan to control the world, through their 2025 plan. Perhaps you should study more before commenting?
4
@Jon Galt Indeed. China 2025 specifies that China will invade Iraq twice, Iran once, start a coup and prop up a dictator in Haiti, El Salvador, Chile, Vietnam, Egypt, and many other countries and support separatists in countries it doesn’t like.
5
@Zhanwen Chen
Bide your time hide your strength. Isn’t that Chinese motto ?
Why don’t we ask China’s neighbors how they feel about South China Sea claims. China is not strong enough militarily to challenge US - yet - but then again it is biding its time.
7
Trump has just put our collective heads in the sand. Anyone who believes this measure will deliver a domestically developed and produced 5G network infrastructure is in for lesson on competition. In 5 years time, when even the citizens of Trump’s “S” counties enjoy 5G, the American public will still be using the quaint infrastructure we enjoy today. With no domestic manufacturer capable of 5G production capability we need a “we will go to the moon by the end of the decade” clarion call. Instead Trump gives us a “what me worry”.
On the good side, there will be little need for the average person to remain on the 18 month upgrade cycle of their mobile phone.
20
I think Trump is setting up a narrative that when the Dems inevitably win in a landslide or by whatever margin that in 2020 China helped them win because they do not like Trump. I can see it a mile off.
6
@Bob Guthrie
I'm not sure what you're reading or smoking in Australia but here in the states I know of no Democrat or lefty who thinks Trump will be beaten by a landslide in 2020. On the contrary, things are not looking good for the Dems at all based on the Identitarian takeover of the base and all the interparty warfare.
3
“China, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the tax returns that are missing.”
“I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
If a foreign government helps a presidential candidate that is ok, right? So long as they do not "collude". And asking directly for help is not collusion we have already established.
18
I find it ironic that this comes on he heels of a disclosure by Cisco of a major security vulnerability in its server hardware.
33
@Gravesender Yes, and Intel chip flaws, Microsoft critical vulnerabilities, etc. It's almost daily and It's endless. How about a law allowing citizens to just opt out of all electronic comms with no penalty fees. Start in the medical field, where asinine laws promoting tech have driven great small practices out of business.
2
Aaah, in the name of keeping us safe. . . How about saving us from ourselves?
8
I ask this sincerely, is there anything besides foreign telecom gear?
5
Great going Mr. Trump. Putting the chill on cell phones will finally take them out of your hands. No more tweets from you.
18
This article falsely states that Huawei and ZTE have deep ties to the Chinese government. All of this is basically ridiculous "red scare" nonsense designed to hurt the business of Chinese companies with, basically, false US propaganda. This is how far we have sunk under Mr Trump and his acolytes. The pendulum probably has to swing far before it swings back to reason, but the damage this does is lasting.
23
@Blue Zone Really? Huawei is run by a member of the ruling party. It's financed by the Chinese government. As a Chinese company it is obliged to follow the orders of the Chinese government which morally bankrupt. This has nothing to do with Trump.
32
@Jeff Trent Really? Google/Facebook/Apple are run by the ruling elite who have hundreds of lobbyists working in Washington. It receives tax breaks and subsidies from the US govt. As a US company, it is obliged to follow laws enacted by a morally bankrupt Congress and executive branch that is more intent on serving the 1% than the avg citizen.
29
@Jeff Trent
Oh, I don't know...they both have moral bankruptcy in common.
4
How did we let China occupy this position in the first place? It reminds me of an old episode of "The Saint" with Roger Moore. During the obligatory capture scene the Chinese operastive bragged to Simon Templar, "We will use your capitalist sytem and inherant greed to undermine you completely."
11
@Chip
Please stop putting them on pedestal. The values of liberalism, openness and freedom lead to creativity that built western civilization. It is easier to steal but let them create anything of their own first.
Just disengage with them and watch them go same way as USSR.
1
This is most likely a first step “national emergency” declaration. First the Wall emergency, now our phone emergency...The Administration is just testing the public-tolerance waters on the way to suspending elections under the guise of a “national emergency.”
13
WhatsAPP, a “supposedly” secure end-to-end encryption service owned by Facebook is monitored by NSO, an Israeli owned company. They have been accused of spying on their users.
According to the BBC, their “surveillance” targeted “Journalists, lawyers, activists and human rights defenders.”
Let us hope Jared Kushner’s WhatsAPP chats with Saudi Arabia’s new leader were monitored as well.
Maybe Netanyahu can hand them over to our Congress so that we have a better idea of just what the heck is going on in the Middle East.
9
'WhatsAPP, a “supposedly” secure end-to-end encryption service owned by Facebook is monitored by NSO ...'
WhatsApp, as you seem to know, is an American company, so its security flaws have nothing to do with China.
More importantly, WhatsApp has released a fix for the problem.
Huawei is a state sponsored threat to American intelligence. As hard as it is to believe, Trump is right on this issue.
36
@Ron exactly. China was the principle architect of the Patriot Act and China developed the NSA operations spying on the world.
9
@Ron
US ‘used’ to be a great country I really admired until the end of cold war, when it has become big headed ! The Chinese has learned a lot from US, including the so called CIA and FBI,which in fact are quite similar to state sponsored terrorism !
2
@Ron No he is not. He does nothing unless it benefits himself. It is important not to be naive about Trump. He is so obviously setting up a narrative that China has helped the Dems in 2020 because they don't like Mr Trump.
He generally reverses legitimate criticism of himself back on to his opposition.
Anyone who still trusts individual 1, a person whose co-conspirator is now in jail, is extraordinarily gullible. He is destroying American institutions. A patriot would oppose him.
3
While on the surface, this may appear as a reasonable security move. However, I doubt that Trump has listened to the actual information from any of his security advisors, nor would he understand the impact of this (doesn't Apple have a large amt of their components build by Chinese companies. And wasn't Huawei one of Trump's pet companies just a few months ago?
And though I am no conspiracy theorists, it one looks at the pages of rising dictatorships, one of the ways authoritarian movements take over control of the government is to control commerce, the media and communication networks. There ANY drastic pronouncements until his presidency and illegal and illicit activities have been fully investigated...and not by his buddy Barr.
I keep hearing about that we are on the "brink" of a constitutional crisis. Unfortunately, under this administration with its uninformed directives, we are facing MANY crises.
24
@Mountain Dragonfly
My comment dropped words and phrases...could be the parts in my computer and internet that were built overseas (;o)
1
@Mountain Dragonfly In retrospect history will prove we have been through wave after wave of constitutional crises. We are well on our way to to a full-blown autocracy. The only question is whether Congress will completely collapse and will the unitary executive dictatorship and a dependent judiciary now reign supreme. The outcome and the unintended consequences remain to be seen as they will unfold in due time. It's all over folks. It's baked in the cake.
1
What will become of the Huawei equipment already installed in much of rural America? Will Huawei continue to service and supply parts? Will American suppliers now be treated unfavorably overseas when bidding for jobs? More importantly, why criminalize firms like Huawei rather than seeking cooperation? We can isolate ourselves behind castle walls and moats, however history shows that has not worked well in the past.
22
We've been watching this for the past 20-30-40 years. "But, they're our friends, they like us, they wouldn't do anything to harm us!". Meanwhile, they've copied IPhones from the very earliest versions, so much so that some people consider the latest copies to be on par with, or possibly even better than the Apple versions. And it is blatant, nobody is even surprised any more, since their copies of nearly everything are flooding the market. Gucci, Coach, Nike, Adidas, Rolex, Apple, HP, the list goes on and on, very few industries have not had their copyrights/trademarks violated. And nothing has been, or could be done about it. I doubt if The Donald's Tariffs are going to stop anything, but we've watched our manufacturingvleaderdhip of the world, dwindle so much that we aren't the machine tool leaders any more. And we let it happen.
23
@BorisRoberts Exactly. All manufacturing jobs in the world permanently belong to the USA. Europe stole them from the US between 1776 and 1950 but they returned to the US for a period of 20 years (1950-1970). Then they got stolen again by Europe and Japan (1970-1990), China (1990-2010) and now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Mexico (2010-present). They must return them to the US now because those 20 years out of 243 prove that the USA is the historical and inevitable leader in global manufacturing.
10
@Zhanwen Chen I enjoy reading sarcastic comment :)
5
@BorisRoberts
It really scare me that the whole family belongs to only one son, the other siblings just have to die-stabding !!
"Chinese law requires that the country’s firms obey instructions from the nation’s Ministry of State Security."
Isn't that exactly what US FISA law does with the NSA's PRISM that diverts internet and telephone traffic through NSA computers?
70
EXACTLY! That's what Europeans like me don't get in all of this. America spied on our Chancellor's phone. And is probably still today reading and analyzing all Facebook, WhatsApp data and so on.
From an American perspective that is of course no problem, and we she should just "stick to it". That alone made you loose your allies in Europe and so we will probably not participate in any Huawei ban.
Furthermore I'm very unsure if security really is at threat here, or if it's just a ridiculous attempt from America to decrease Chinese dominance in the tech producing sector. However, China will advance this technology and the subsequent industry 4.0 that will follow with it. If the US does not participate in this advancement in technology, this only leads to long-term disadvantages.
10
@Marcopolo
Nailed it. The whole argumenation is ridiculous to anyone other than an American. There was a Russian saying during the last Cold War. "You Americans and we Russians both have propaganda. The only difference is you believe yours."
5
@Belasco You can also replace “Russia” with “China” here.
Trump is slowly melting down in front of our eyes, taking the country down with him, and we are powerless to do anything about it.
63
I’m not a fan of Trump, anyone who works for him or most of those who work with him, but the administration is right on this one. It’s REALLY hard for me to say that. Give the Devil his due.
47
OK, so Huawei has to write a sizable check to Trump's re-election campaign to get into the market. What else is new?
19
we are not the only ones trying to invent the 5g wheel. let's hope our 5g turns out better than their 5g. I am not convinced it will.
1
@tom
Even if it will, the time taken and subsequent replacement will also kill you, let alone the lag in time of using the technology !
ONE THING Trump has done that I can wholeheartedly approve.
15
And how about the millions of phones already in consumers' hands?
2
And where is the security on our election systems?
169
@Antoinette
Seriously?? Stop being an alarmist. It's being handled by Russia and possibly the Ukraine. Everyone knows this. So relax. He's got this.
7
@Antoinette
Under the guise of national security, Trump placed steel tariffs on Canada!
Building the wall and sending our troops to the southern border was also for national security.
But not Russian cyberattacks.
What a liar.
6
Let's require that all 5G products installed in the US must employ open source code. That provides ample opportunity to expose any security holes, back doors, or other flaws that would permit Chinese authorities to disable the equipment as claimed.
Much of the present internet structure is based on open source code and it has proven itself remarkably robust. When flaws are exposed they are fixed with remarkable speeds.
14
@lgalb
I'm afraid your assertion that open source code would make hidden backdoors detectable is a bit naive. The code could easily be embedded in a chip and so be well hidden from detection.
9
@Austin Liberal Exactly. You should never purchase computers or chips made outside the USA? Intel chips? Malicious. NVIDIA? Untrustworthy. Qualcomm? Big oof. Anything foreign must have embedded malware.
1
@Zhanwen Chen
Let’s China have its critical infrastructure built by Japan, India or Russia, then you can talk about this?
China lost America’s trust - as simple as that. Now you can cry wolf advice much as you want.
We have a trade war now running ,full steam ahead. Ignore the icebergs.
Each side escalates further until both sides are suffering, to each other’s satisfaction.
Let us hope our captain does not share a fate similar to that of the Titanic . Keep the music playing, meanwhile.
10
@Joseph:
We've already hit an iceberg.
1
OK, perhaps this is a good start. (Why aren't American firms investing in 5G technology, when it's been on the horizon for years?) But what is the Trump administration doing to prevent hacking of American elections? We just learned that they got into equipment in two counties in Florida in 2016. They have succeeded, with the overt assistance of President Trump, in undermining public confidence in American institutions, from law enforcement to elections. By all accounts, the administration is doing nothing to stop further hacking in 2020. Which means they are quietly welcoming it.
85
Baloney. Not until Trump was elected were any of these issues even known or addressed. Highlighting and challenging the threats does not create the threats. Do you think the China developments happened yesterday?
11
@jim Emerson
American firms should be the world leaders in 5G tech.
"by all accounts" you say. What accounts?
@Wildebeest:
You missed the point. . .
1
In the long run, that is a losing strategy because China is graduating almost 10 times as many stem graduates as the US. There is a saying that quantity has a quality all of its own.
Sooner or later we’ll have to use technologies they invented. Or risk falling even farther behind.
95
@Samz
The US is already behind in 5G technology. That's the problem. European partners even Germany are using Huawei despite US threats. Asian countries like S. Korea are even less prone to take the US alarms seriously. They want top of the line 5G the US cannot supply it.
The former head of the UK's "NSA" said the US claims were "nonsense". China is already ahead in many other areas, supercomputing and artificial intell etc.. (Which raises the question if they are in the lead in these areas who did they "steal" that technology from? The idea they just make cheap Walmart stuff may soothe US egos but it is hopelessly out of date.
6
strategically, it's a pretty too late move to be effective. this mesure should have been taken in 2007. it was clear ,in that year, at least to me, that this particular company is growing abnormally in a very sensitive/strategic sector. i work in a telecom company in north africa and believe me the grip that huawei has our networks is very firm.
37
@Yassine
This is what the US media has failed to report. Outside the UK and 5 eyes allies like Australia that are very sensitive to US pressure the rest of the world including many Western European countries like Germany are resisting US pressure not to deal with Huawei. Huawei is the major provider in Africa and Asia - the parts of the world that are booming. The US cannot put the genie back in the bottle. Even the UK wants to use Huawei and under tremendous US pressure is only likely to partially limit its use. (Which is bad for the US because the UK nat sec establishment knows Huawei better than the US and they say the risks are exaggerated. This infuriates the US and makes their spiel even harder to sell elsewhere.)
4
"stepping up a battle against China by effectively barring sales by Huawei, the country’s leading networking company."
Of course he does. I wonder if the battle he is engaged in with China regarding tariffs he threatens to impose were none existence, he would turn a blind eye to the cyber threat similar too his good friend Vladi. Most likely yes.
The truth be told, djt is the biggest threat to our nation. Vote him out and "lock Him up"
52
@Mary
Are you an advocate of softening relations with China and letting them call all the shots?
We would save lots of money if we didn't have an armed force and if we gave most of that money to the poor.
2
@tcarl No. I did not imply that I did. I simply asked what would he do about Huawei if tariffs weren't on the table.
2
@mary China is a much bigger threat to our nation than Trump's presidential blip. Russia is a paper tiger. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater because of partisanship.
2
Not trusting the intelligence of a lot of the voting public, I wonder how many people know about the outreach China has been accomplishing while America has been hiding in it's shell? The work includes major in-roads building roads in what our president calls S hole countries. I wonder if they know that China owns 40% of our debt, if they didn't mind taking the hit that collapsing a major international partner would deliver, they could do us some real harm? I even wonder if they know that their marketplace, indeed their population, numbers 1 billion more than ours? I believe that China cheats but Xi probably considers it a game, like Trump treats paying his taxes.
29
@Rick Gage
You really stretched it when you wrote China owns 40% of our debt.
It's actually more like 5%:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-china-how-much-does-it-own-3306355
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States#Concerns_over_Chinese_holdings_of_U.S._debt
China or anyone else for that matter, can't just suddenly say they want to immediately liquidate their holdings in US Treasuries - for one, it's logistically difficult given the amount of money (~$1.2 Trillion) and two, if they did, it would cause the value of the Yuan (RMB) to skyrocket,which is not good for an export oriented economy like China's.
Why do you think they bought Treasuries in the first place? - To lower the value of the Yuan.
16
@Rick Gage
40% of our debt? Not even close. Where do you get numbers like that?
11
@Mark, you're both right and I apologize. They are the largest foreign owners but there was no reason to exaggerate the %.
4
Any hope that someone will take away his phone and access to his Twitter account?(asking for a friend).
104
@wbj
Any hope that SOMEBODY will take him out of the white house? (asking for the future of the republic).
5
@wbj Good idea (from a friend)
Of course this is a trade war and as China has advanced as far as it has in 5G technology what is easier to say than the company poses a security threat. The real threat to the world is the trump administration.
79
Good.
There's not a single piece of telecomm infrastructure that we should permit to be manufactured overseas by a hostile foreign government - and all Chinese corporations are inseparable from Xi Jinping's rule.
149
I agree. I am not for trump and this is honestly the first thing he's done that I agree with.
22
@Anonymous
Absolutely agree. I don't think this is a partisan issue. The PRC expects it's giant companies and CEOs to be another organ of the Communist Party and do their "patriotic duty" of serving the government. Buying highly sensitive telecom equipment from them is insane.
26
@Anonymous
Agree wholeheartedly. Not a Trump fan, but on this one the administration is spot on. Too bad we're in a situation where we don't have any cutting edge telecom equipment manufacturers here in the U.S. that are on the same scale as Huawei. Maybe there's some sense to Trump's trade war in the hopeful idea that possibly, just possibly some of these industries can produce their wares over here in the U.S.
I'm sure I'll get flamed here for dreaming.
18
Next we will have to buy only American cars regardless of their gas consumption because what we drive will be a matter of national security.
99
@Frank Lopez like, say, those gas guzzlers that Tesla makes?
10
@Jeff - he's probably talking about cars you can actually buy, not cars you can join a list of people waiting for.
7
@Jeff
Most Americans can't afford a Tesla.
4