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Exclusive: U.S. lawmakers urge AT&T to cut commercial ties with Huawei - sources
U.S. lawmakers are urging AT&T Inc, the No. 2 wireless carrier, to cut commercial ties to Chinese phone maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and oppose plans by telecom operator China Mobile Ltd to enter the U.S. market because of national security concerns, two congressional aides said.
[...] Earlier this month, AT&T was forced to scrap a plan to offer its customers Huawei handsets after some members of Congress lobbied against the idea with federal regulators, sources told Reuters.
The U.S. government has also blocked a string of Chinese acquisitions over national security concerns, including Ant Financial's proposed purchase of U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International Inc.
The lawmakers are also advising U.S. firms that if they have ties to Huawei or China Mobile, it could hamper their ability to do business with the U.S. government, one aide said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @11:12PM (4 children)
It makes news when the US government blocks foreign control. That should tell you something: it isn't the norm.
Mostly, all of our stuff is up for sale. We sell ownership of companies. Our companies think they are moving into China when they get 49% ownership of a joint venture being operated by patriotic Chinese citizens, and then they turn over all the trade secrets to that joint venture. We welcome foreign nationals into our corporate networks, VPNed past the firewall, to save a dime on IT costs. We welcome foreign nationals physically into our companies, under many kinds of visa, and strangely assume that none will be patriotic to their country of origin.
Our law even prohibits a normal company from refusing to hire an IT worker or engineer due to foreign connections. This is exactly backwards. We let the fox guard the hens. The only way out is to become a defense contractor and find some excuse to require security clearances for everybody.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 17 2018, @11:52PM
> strangely assume that none will be patriotic to their country of origin.
When given the amazing opportunity to live and work in the Greatest Country On Earth (TM), why would anyone do anything against it? Don't be silly ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @12:33AM
Check your collectivism.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @07:53AM (1 child)
A trustworthy person trusts people. An untrustworthy person trusts no one. Likewise, people with no loyalty cannot comprehend that other people might be loyal, or value loyalty.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @05:43PM
This is a case where loyalty can be split. Only a fool would make assumptions about the winning loyalty.
Also, the fact that trusting people tend to be trustworthy does not imply that trustworthy people are trusting. Your assumption is damn broken with lots of people, myself included. The normal behavior of an ordinary (not politician) conservative individual is to be pretty paranoid, yet honor-bound and duty-bound.
China commonly uses leverage over families. A person working at a US tech company might find that their uncle in China got arrested, or that their mom in China is facing some sort of audit. Word goes out that things could get resolved... but maybe not... and maybe handing over company secrets could help smooth things along. China also isn't above delivering violent beatings, even to family members in the USA. It happens. So, do you really think a person will be more loyal to your company than to their own family?