That's a pretty inflammatory response. Huawei is banned from bidding on US Government Contracts [1]. As a consumer you can definitely keep that in mind, but that "communist produced" comment is a little bit too much Joseph McCarthy for me.

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29620442

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

I don't know about the communist part, but Huawei is known to have links to the Chinese military. Given recent events about Lenovo and Superfish, it probably is wise to reaccess the security/privacy implications here and not just the shape of the watch.

If all your tech might be spying on you, you should pick the one not controlled by someone with legal authority in your local area...

Unless you are working with military technology, or some real 'secret sauce' company confidential tech, you are probably not interesting to PRC but fascinating to the IRS...

I think this is probably why you mentioned IRS:

http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/irs-buying-spying-equipmen...

But then again, if you don't belong to one of the groups "interesting" enough to the US government, you wouldn't care if your tech is bugged? Privacy should not be a means but an end in itself. If we all "have nothing to hide", then we should all use postcards for our mail.

Techs made by someone with _direct_ ties to the government are more likely to have surveillance capabilities baked in, and tend to be easier for government to access. Especially when that government is well known to engage in espionage by directly sponsoring cyber warfare carried out by military units.

Also, I guess western governments have Huawei bent over even more of a barrel than say google. Huawei devices are used extensively in infrastructure. Most governments (known to include the UK and India) insist on huawei funding government labs to inspect the devices for backdoors. I guess if you already have secret inspection deals with creepy government security types, they might ask you to add a backdoor of their own as part of the certification process.

Where do you think most of the technology you use today come from?

I don't think the well-paid engineers and business executives who produce the device are communists, but I think the Chinese government could certainly have an invisible hand in their production just as our government may have a hand in the production of our devices.

Take it with a grain of salt, considering the NSA got caught intercepting and physically bugging hardware from various vendors as well...

That is correct. This company is notorious and known to put spyware software on it's phones.

Notorious ? Known ? Do you have any references (if possible from other sources than US gov. agencies) to back those words ? Did anyone come forward with some concrete proof/source code? I'm really curious.

What electronics can you buy these days that are not "Communist produced"? I'm posting from a "Communist produced" computer and I'd bet you're reading on one.