Don’t ask why US acted against China’s Huawei. Ask: why now?

South China Morning Post ^ | 10:00am, 10 Dec, 2018 | Tom Holland

[Zhang Fei]

According to one Western intelligence official, Western spy agencies have long been aware of Huawei’s intelligence-gathering function, and have exploited their knowledge to feed the Chinese with misleading information in a classic “Concordski” ploy.

The name refers to the Soviet Union’s programme in the 1960s and 1970s to develop a rival to the Anglo-French supersonic Concorde airliner. The legend in intelligence circles is that the Soviet spies approached a British aeronautical engineer in an attempt to obtain detailed plans of Concorde.

Alerted to the attempt, the British fed the Soviets with doctored plans. The Russian plane crashed on its international debut at the 1973 Paris air show, and after a second crash, the project was scrapped.

All this is diverting, but it is exactly that: a diversion. The salient question is not the how or why of US action against Huawei, but the “why now?”.

One theory is that the wheels of US justice grind extraordinarily slowly, and that investigations initiated five or six years ago have only now gathered sufficient evidence to justify an arrest.

This is implausible. The US administration may be happy to back away from tariff increases on imports from China that could hurt US consumers. But Meng’s arrest in Vancouver strongly suggests that the US war of attrition against China’s economy continues.

US action against Huawei for historical breaches of US sanctions on Iran will severely damage, even cripple, the Chinese company.

Of Huawei’s 92 core suppliers, 33 are US corporations, including chip makers Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Marvell and Micron.

If Washington now prohibits these companies from selling to Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant will struggle to survive.

In short, despite the agreement on tariffs in Buenos Aires last weekend, US efforts to degrade, or at least contain, China’s technological capabilities continue. Expect more actions

[bagster]

Don’t ask why US acted against China’s Huawei. Ask: why now?

Could it be...

The Plan?

Nah. Nothing to see here. Move along, citizen.

😃

[Hugh the Scot]

ChiCom propaganda.

[nevergore]

“But..... but...... Orange man bad..... Orange man stupid.....orange man no read....Orange Man no have plan..... collusion! Impeach! Racist!’

Trump found the hole in their 50 year plan and is driving a truck through it.... they exploited our tech but they never accounted for the supply chain....

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Are they saying they haven’t stolen enough technology from 33 companies yet?

[WashingtonSource]

Good article. Sorry I missed it when it was first published back in December 2018. I read South China Morning Post online almost daily.

[Tai_Chung]

Chinese firms account for 25 of Huawei’s 92 core global suppliers, while 11 are from Japan, 10 from Taiwan, two each from South Korea and Hong Kong and one from Singapore. There are 33 American firms on its list of suppliers.

I like how the SCMP does not list Hong Kong and Taiwan among the Chinese firms supplying Huawei. I wouldn't be surprised if China steps up its theft of intellectual property and make counterfeit goods for Huawei.

[gaijin]

If we’d have acted promptly against Huawei, it would have been decried as treachery.

Instead, we delayed for some time, and, PRESTO...!

THAT instead is denounced as a very special, daaark kind of treachery.

Let’s face it:

The modern Chinese psyche NEEDS to believe it’s being taken advantage of, unfairly HELD in some station lower than what they deserve and have long deserved.

[Retvet]

Or maybe it’s to stop Democratic party, Chinese collusion?

[rx]

And why are Boeing 737 Max crashes, China’s leveraged desire to have the licensed Boeing aircraft they manufacture be able to be flown in the US airspace (not allowed under the original agreement) and Trump’s negotiations with the Chinese over trade issues conveniently left out of this?

Probably for the same reason that the DS knows how Boeing’s catching a cold over the 737 Max could convulse the entire US economy just as quickly things going poorly for Huawei could cause a downturn in the Chinese economy.