One reason Chinese companies should be banned from US- Canadian- EU Networks
Really?
Which US or EU companies have the capacity to make hundreds of thousands of custom motherboards?
How much more are you willing to pay for computers sourced in the US or EU?
You don't think China is capable of infiltrating foreign factories and inserting chips?
You do know that part of the way the US figured out this problem was
via espionage?
In order to get further down the trail, U.S. spy agencies drew on the prodigious tools at their disposal. They sifted through communications intercepts, tapped informants in Taiwan and China, even tracked key individuals through their phones, according to the person briefed on evidence gathered during the probe. Eventually, that person says, they traced the malicious chips to four subcontracting factories that had been building Supermicro motherboards for at least two years.
As mentioned, Chinese companies contract out work, another hole to be closed
Almost every manufacturing company uses subs. Good luck with that.
Anyone who does not realize China is a long term strategic threat, militarily and economically has their head in their nether regions
That's one way to look at it.
Here's another one:
Everyone is spying on everyone else, to the maximum of their ability. China spies on every country it can, including the US. The US spies on every country it can, including China. Heck, the US wrecked Iranian centrifuges via cyberwarfare.
And yes, that includes spying on allies. The US spies on Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Israel... If it's a country, the US is spying on it. If a country has sufficient resources, it's spying on the US.
This is not to say the US should roll over and do nothing, or that China is an ally. There is no question that companies and governments should be pissed about this, and taking appropriate steps to protect themselves. It's that espionage is simply a fact of life, and everyone does it.
This is one area where Trump could take a leadership role, and include all NATO Allies, including sanctions on Chinese technology companies.
He could. But, he won't.
Trump has already screwed the pooch on this one. His first act was to pull out of the TPP, a trade agreement
specifically designed to contain China. He's spent well over a year insulting and haranguing our allies. He's labeled them as security threats to impose tariffs. He insulted Canada deeply during the NAFTA renegotiations. He insulted Germany by saying "Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia because it’s getting so much of its energy from Russia" -- and that was after Trump spent about 2 years publicly sucking up to Putin. To add insult to injury, he came across as a meek Putin puppet during their press conference in Helsiki, just
one week after making that statement.
He's also already blown most of his wad with the current tariffs on China. His administration is screwing that up too, because the trade negotiators are either unwilling or unable to provide a consistent list of demands.
He's doing everything he can, intentionally and unintentionally, to dismantle the world order where the US has a primary role.
The list goes on, but the bottom line is that Trump is not in a position to take any sort of leadership role in these matters. He has spent 2 years sabotaging and undermining the State Department, as well as pissing off and pissing on our allies, and praising autocrats around the globe. He does not understand or appreciate diplomacy, negotiation or allies. He cannot get past his own transactional thinking. No one is going to view him stable, let alone acting in good faith.
Sorry, but if you want international action, someone else is going to have to be in charge. And whoever it is, they can't rely on Trump to join up.
