This. Is. Huge. There are many things that come to mind after reading this article. First, it puts a nail in the coffin of China’s aspirations to develop a microchip industry. There will be no market for them, and China’s is not big enough. bloomberg.com/news/features/…
It gives the US the upper hand in convincing allies, and non-allies, around the world to be weary of Huawei and ZTE. This comes at a key moment, when countries are deciding how to upgrade to 5G. This may be a lethal blow for Huawei. No one will trust them.
This will also speed up the process of moving the supply chain out of China, quickly. Nothing coming out of China will be trusted, especially after seeing how the PLA could force a private company into doing its dirty work. There is nothing within China that the PLA can’t soil.
To get an idea of the national security implications of this, I recommend P. W. Singer’s “Ghost Fleet”. In this novel, the author describes the war implications of such a hack. Devastating.
I’ll go as far as saying there will be a before and after, this article, regarding China’s ambitions to build a microchip industry. There are many reasons why this is an uphill endeavor, but most devastating will be the complete drying of the market for any potential chips.
And, by the way, yes, as @melissakchan suggested in a previous Tweet, you know which country doesn’t have this suspicions hanging over it (insert commercial here)? Mexico. So any company seeking to move out of China is more than welcome in Mexico.
