It was common knowledge in my circles back at the time of the acquisition, but that's been 20+ years ago now. I try to bring attention to it whenever I'm asked about using Lenovo gear.

I’m pretty sure OP is being sarcastic.

The companies I have worked for in the past have always sworn by Thinkpads.

I don’t care who owns them Thinkpads are amazing.

I can only supply you with facts. Trust could be an emotional word after all.

Using a device manufactured by an adversary-owned entity defeats the sole purpose of MDM. Your data isn't safe within an OS compiled by a Chinese company that "originated as an offshoot of a state-owned research institute." [1] There are so many layers where a backdoor could be hidden within the stack.

I don't think Big Techs or any companies that take data security seriously would accept such a device.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo

Okay, so which hardware are you buying that isn't using any Chinese components?) I don't think the empire can make this kind of hardware from scratch without China at the moment.

China makes excellent hardware, that's not really the core issue with this.

I remember it being a pretty big deal when IBM spun off thinkpads to Lenovo, and then again when they were caught installing malware in the EFI on some of the entry level models.

I've avoided them since despite them being the favored laptop of most corporate and Linux users.

I guess you're too young to remember Lenovo buying IBM's PC business and folks complaining about security since they were Chinese?

Nobody of a certain age. If you are over 35 you'll remember when they were known as a Chinese firm buying up all of the IBM Thinkpad business...