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Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Washington Asks Allies to Drop Huawei
The U.S. government has initiated an extraordinary outreach campaign to foreign allies, trying to persuade wireless and internet providers in these countries to avoid telecommunications equipment from China's Huawei Technologies Co., according to people familiar with the situation.
American officials have briefed their government counterparts and telecom executives in friendly countries where Huawei equipment is already in wide use, including Germany, Italy and Japan, about what they see as cybersecurity risks, these people said. The U.S. is also considering increasing financial aid for telecommunications development in countries that shun Chinese-made equipment, some of these people say.
Also: The US is warning other countries against using Huawei's 5G tech
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:41PM
That's a question founded upon a distortion of what's going on: it's irrelevant. A straw question, if you will. My answer, FWIW, is "in the US", but it doesn't change one whit based on China having more information or not.
The tension I see is between the US surveilling its citizens, where it has and uses power (the argument about the USG having authority is an issue I'll punt on for the moment) and China surveilling those same US citizens. No one is talking about living somewhere else. We're just talking about the effects of surveillance by these parties.
So while we do that, what is relevant? I think that's a fair question.
China might use information they gather here, from us, to improve their economy. They might use it to improve their military if/when they dig into our MIC in general. They might use it to improve their understanding of us.
So, their economy improves? Good for them. That's something I wish on every country.
Their military improves? They're no threat, and it is unlikely they would want to become one. Meh.
They understand us better? Good. They're an important trade partner.
Do I see China, in any way, as a threat to me? Even considering they might have my info? No.
Neither country is even slightly likely to change its behavior towards its citizens based upon having more or less information about the other country.
Also, the idea that the USG isn't attempting to gather whatever information it can from the Chinese, by any means it can get away with, is a non-starter. Goose, gander, etc.
The way I see it in the end is that the policies and potential actions of one's native country are by far the more legitimate concern of that country's citizens. Which is not to say that the governments in question won't use agitprop and worse to stir up their respective populations about the other. Sure they will. They always have. Seeing through that is our job, or so I see it, anyway. We sure haven't been able to change it.