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Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by ajross on Sunday April 14, 2019 @11:48AM (#19660065)
You should absolutely question the US intelligence community and its relationship with the business community. And I'm sure you do.

You should also be suspicious of China, for exactly the same reason. And the fact that you explicitly refuse to (and get upvoted to the top of the topic by the HN community!) is... well, it's fucking horrifying.

Seriously folks? You're so pissed at the NSA that the PRC is a "good guy" to you now and you need to defend them on the internet and cast aspersions against the "assault" on them by the media?

Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by luckylion on Sunday April 14, 2019 @11:57AM (#19660122)
Let me try to give you my personal perspective. Not a fan of the PRC (though strangely fascinated), I'm from western Europe. China has little to no influence here, the US has gigantic influence. China hasn't been wholesale spying on us, or hasn't been caught doing that yet. The US has, and probably still does. Chinese companies don't practically have monopolies here, US companies do.

From my perspective, China might become a threat at some point, the US is a giant threat right now. I have a feeling that I'm not alone with that, and it might explain why you get a more nuanced reaction from Non-Americans to the China/US-conflict.

Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by ajross on Sunday April 14, 2019 @12:21PM (#19660257)
Some us care more about the threat posted by the PRC to its own people, FWIW. I mean, look, if you want to argue from a position of Euro-centric parochialism... I don't live there, so I don't need to care about that logic, right?
Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by luckylion on Sunday April 14, 2019 @12:35PM (#19660324)
Possibly, but that might also just be a rationalization for protecting your interests which are generally aligned with those of your country. There are many variables, but I don't think that "China mistreats it's people" isn't high on the list for "We need to keep Huawei out and rely on US technology only". Technological and economic influence/power are much more important, Realpolitik wins every time.
Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by ajross on Sunday April 14, 2019 @12:39PM (#19660342)
And I repeat, I remain genuinely horrified that the same people who rail on incesantly (and justifiably!) about US abuses are willing to rationalize, explain away and ignore those of the PRC.

Are you absolutely sure it's me doing the "rationalization for protecting your interests which are generally aligned with those of your country"?

Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by unparagoned on Sunday April 14, 2019 @02:27PM (#19660857)
Yes
Re:Who's Behind Huawei? by charlescearl on Sunday April 14, 2019 @03:22PM (#19661158)
I have two sets of personal experiences that cause me concern when I hear the “Huawei as PRC front company” line in articles. As a young engineer at AT&T in the late ‘80s a senior engineer who was consulting with our small team broke it down for me that the DSP algorithms we were working on were probably being used for eavesdropping. He recused himself from the team after this discovery and this event I suppose left me a bit jaded.

Some 20 years later, I happened to meet some of the Huawei employees in their Botswana office while there on an extended visit. Seemed like the typical big co. field office. The office manager was so annoyed when the first of the Huawei stories came out. She responded with words to the effect “why all the U.S. hate? Why is it that a successful Chinese company can’t just be successful?”

I don't doubt that there’s a lot of questionable stuff going on at Huawei. This happens with companies operating in the confines of countries with extreme geopolitical goals. Those of you that have worked on federal contracts probably can attest to the murky relationship between government and company interests.

In terms of the human rights of PRC vs US, I am not a deep student of PRC. I will say that as a U.S. citizen I’ve experienced a sliding scale of human rights. The egregious human rights violations meted on on non-US citizens in Vietnam, GWOT, the current U.S. southern border situation, etc has been documented. The human rights violations of African Americans, indigenous Americans, LGBT Americans — these may be of less degree than that of PRC towards its citizens including ethnic minorities, but they are shameful nevertheless and painful (as I and many people that I care for have experienced) and demand a resolution.

The American citizens do have the rights to demand better accountability of their intelligence agency practices by voting in people who will enforce those practices. For several administrations running, they seem to have abandoned that responsibility.