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Who's Behind Huawei?

latimes.com

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Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#31

Post by deogeo »

charlescearl wrote: post #3

When AT&T has so willingly handed over call data to the U.S. intelligence agencies for decades, even assisting in the analysis of said data, I have to question the assault on Huawei by U.S. media.

You're looking at it from a 'justice' perspective. It's much easier to explain the attitudes from an 'us-vs-them' perspective: US spying is used to give the US an advantage. Chinese spying is to give China an advantage.

It's a lot like complaining about armed Chinese soldiers stationed in the US, only to be met by "Well our own soldiers are also armed".

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#32

Post by shittyadmin »

seneca wrote: post #9
charlescearl wrote: post #3

When AT&T has so willingly handed over call data to the U.S. intelligence agencies for decades, even assisting in the analysis of said data, I have to question the assault on Huawei by U.S. media.

While both are reprehensible behavior, supply information to the US government and being fundamentally linked with the Chinese Communist government aren't even close. It's like comparing a school yard bully to a serial killer. Political dissenters don't disappear when AT&T shares information with the FBI. We really need to question how so many Westerners have gotten to a point that they some how see an equivalence.

I think the main factor here is that the Chinese government spying on me likely would have no impact on my life, while the US government spying on me has a direct impact. So as an average US citizen, I should be far more concerned about US spying than Chinese spying.

I absolutely agree though, I'd be far more afraid of using a Chinese device as a Chinese citizen than as an American citizen using an American device. China has far worse human rights abuses, it's just the ways they can impact most Americans are minimal in comparison.

I feel it's reasonable for an individual to be concerned about your own country's human rights abuses first and foremost as those are the ones you're personally most likely to contend with.

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#33

Post by Buldak »

seneca wrote: post #9
charlescearl wrote: post #3

When AT&T has so willingly handed over call data to the U.S. intelligence agencies for decades, even assisting in the analysis of said data, I have to question the assault on Huawei by U.S. media.

While both are reprehensible behavior, supply information to the US government and being fundamentally linked with the Chinese Communist government aren't even close. It's like comparing a school yard bully to a serial killer. Political dissenters don't disappear when AT&T shares information with the FBI. We really need to question how so many Westerners have gotten to a point that they some how see an equivalence.

Even if China is guilty of worse than the United States, it's not clear to me that that should be salient to Americans. I'd submit that, although China is constantly presented as a rival, Americans are much more likely to be harmed by their own government than by China's. (Americans should also be concerned about this because they are, to some extent, responsible for it themselves.) If that's true, then perhaps they should indeed be more critical of AT&T than Huawei.

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#34

Post by zwaps »

joaomacp wrote: post #4

I have personally decided to avoid buying 'Made in China' products whenever it's possible. It's hard, but I don't want to support their work conditions or predatory geoeconomics in any way.

While you can not buy products where no part is made in China, you very often have a choice where to allocate profits from your purchase.

For example, if you buy Huawei phones, then most of the money goes to China. If you buy from a non-Chinese company, the extend is less.

As to the people who just instinctively respond with whataboutism: China is a dictatorship that not only commits genocide against Muslims in Xingjiang, they are also overtly hostile to anyone, especially any country, not directly supporting their view of censorship and social control.

How you personally deal with the US and US products, is your choice. In the same way.

But let me say one thing: As many faults as the US has, it has nothing on China when it comes to the suppression of freedom of speech. For example, everyone and their mom makes fun of Trump, and Americans. Or Germans, or British. Or whatever. But make fun of China or the CCP in any way, and a wave of threats, both political and personal, descent upon you - up to the highest level. Ask that Swedish TV show... And you better never set foot into China after that.

Anyone who has the slightest idea about Chinese face culture, and its political environment, know that the two countries are simply not comparable in that regard. And whatever wrongs the US has, it has them for completely different reasons.

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#35

Post by [deleted] »

spectramax wrote: post #29
onetimemanytime wrote: post #14

USA is right to fear them. Spying issues aside (for a second) here is this giant company that easily take over the worldwide smartphone market. The very things USA has controlled since Jobs and Gates started. Oh, and they can spy on everyone. For the "You too" crowd: Yes, NSA spies on whatever they can. But you do not see Apple or Google doing what NSA wants. I have a feeling that Huawei doesn't have the option of go…

I really feel that HN has some really unusual behavior when criticizing China. Almost always, HN defends China by throwing rocks at US. It is really baffling.

[deleted]

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#36

Post by luckylion »

spectramax wrote: post #29
onetimemanytime wrote: post #14

USA is right to fear them. Spying issues aside (for a second) here is this giant company that easily take over the worldwide smartphone market. The very things USA has controlled since Jobs and Gates started. Oh, and they can spy on everyone. For the "You too" crowd: Yes, NSA spies on whatever they can. But you do not see Apple or Google doing what NSA wants. I have a feeling that Huawei doesn't have the option of go…

I really feel that HN has some really unusual behavior when criticizing China. Almost always, HN defends China by throwing rocks at US. It is really baffling.

I'm reading this differently. To most Americans, the issue is pretty clear: American geopolitics, industrial espionage and global surveillance benefits them, China doing the same does not.

For Non-Americans, it's different, therefore their reactions aren't as simple as US good, China bad.

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#37

Post by sarchertech »

When there's a thread discussing Assange, or the NSA, the top comment is never "but China does it too, this is an unfair attack on the US."

Right now there are millions of people in concentration camps for belonging to the wrong ethnic group and practicing the wrong religion. How bad does it have to get before we can agree that the Chinese government isn't just the victim of US propaganda?

Do they have to start executing Uighurs en masse? If history is any indication, that's the most likely next step in this story.

Edit: I noticed this article just moved from #8 to #38 in under 5 minutes. What's the reasoning behind flagging this.

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#38

Post by andybak »

> Most Americans have never heard of Huawei, in part because it has been obsessed with secrecy since its founding in 1987

They're not terribly good at this secrecy lark, then. The phone sitting on my desk has got "Huawei" written on the front in big letters and has the word "Huawei" filling the screen every time it boots.

Re: Who's Behind Huawei?

#39

Post by ajross »

charlescearl wrote: post #3

When AT&T has so willingly handed over call data to the U.S. intelligence agencies for decades, even assisting in the analysis of said data, I have to question the assault on Huawei by U.S. media.

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?

#40

Post by bad_user »

thepangolino wrote: post #22
brandonmenc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because one is a not totally un-hostile foreign government, and the other is not.

Funny how this works. There exist a whole range of actions for which I'd much more be willing to be spied upon by an openly hostile foreign power rather than my, ever so slightly friendlier, own government.

That’s very shortsighted. First of all the spying that your own government does has to be lawful, whereas in the eyes of a foreign government you have no rights.

Also in your own country you have legal ways to fight the spying conducted by your government, whereas you can do absolutely nothing to a foreign government.

I’m an EU citizen and this is precisely why I got mad about the Snowden revelations. Because under US legislation as a non-US citizen I have no rights above whatever the trade agreements between the US and the EU are saying. And once that data gets collected, it will get abused sooner or later.

And let me tell you, being born in an ex-communist state from the Warsaw Pact, the thought that another communist state is watching me is freaking me out ;-)

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