Re:MIT cuts ties with Chinese tech firms Huawei, ZTE
by smsm42 on Thursday April 04, 2019 @05:40PM
(#19577384)
> Why trust Cisco or Apple or Google or Facebook or Microsoft in USA's Prism?
You don't have to trust them. Definitely you better not to. But that doesn't make you to trust Huawei either. At least Google/Facebook are subject to US government, which is controlled by a (still) functioning democracy. Huawei is controlled by a violent authoritarian dictatorship. I'd say however I mistrust Google, I'd probably still mistrust Chinese Communist Party more. There are mechanisms in the US that prevent or impede governmental abuse. They are not faultless - they still get a lot of abuse through. But some is caught, and some becomes public (yes, Snowden - but the things were starting to seep through even before he blew up the dam). In China, I don't see even these partial and faulty impediments to government control.
> Its sad to see a place of learning is getting into politics & business.
Most major educational institutions are already billion-dollar businesses. And with this size, connection to politics is inevitable. And if Huawei does business in the US, it would be subject to the same rules other US businesses playing by - where being suspect of performing surveillance on the users on behalf of the government - let alone the government like Chinese one, - or enabling widespread human rights abuse - is a big black mark. The one which mere lower prices are not going to erase.
You don't have to trust them. Definitely you better not to. But that doesn't make you to trust Huawei either. At least Google/Facebook are subject to US government, which is controlled by a (still) functioning democracy. Huawei is controlled by a violent authoritarian dictatorship. I'd say however I mistrust Google, I'd probably still mistrust Chinese Communist Party more. There are mechanisms in the US that prevent or impede governmental abuse. They are not faultless - they still get a lot of abuse through. But some is caught, and some becomes public (yes, Snowden - but the things were starting to seep through even before he blew up the dam). In China, I don't see even these partial and faulty impediments to government control.
> Its sad to see a place of learning is getting into politics & business.
Most major educational institutions are already billion-dollar businesses. And with this size, connection to politics is inevitable. And if Huawei does business in the US, it would be subject to the same rules other US businesses playing by - where being suspect of performing surveillance on the users on behalf of the government - let alone the government like Chinese one, - or enabling widespread human rights abuse - is a big black mark. The one which mere lower prices are not going to erase.