What is so vital to always keep in mind is how perfectly Huawei/ZTE encapsulate everything about current global tensions about China. So let's go down the list. 1. Huawei/ZTE are Chinese state intelligence firms. Huawei was founded by a PLA general. ZTE is owned by 1/n
by branches of what used to be the Chinese military and remain the primary weaponry and hardware suppliers. I've written about this and this is easy information to verify. 2. Huawei/ZTE were well known as supplying pretty much every nasty regime on the planet. You name it 2/n
Huawei/ZTE were helping them expand their oppression machinery. 3. They had plans to evade US law against exporting US goods to places like Iran. This wasn't an oopsy daisy. This was a clear formulated recognition they were breaking US law and intended to. 3/n
This leads to a couple of clear logical outcomes. 1. Everything was so widely known, one has to believe Beijing was quietly encouraging Huawei/ZTE. Beijing was repeatedly warned about these companies activities in these countries are their use of US components, Beijing 4/n
is flat out lying to say they didn't know and based upon the long history of activity was most likely encouraging their activities. 2. Beijing "non interference" is a flat out lie given their willingness to support regimes like Syria with chemical weapons, DPRK with 5/n
just about everything, and everybody from Iran to Venezuela become more oppresive. This is the world Beijing wants and you are an absolute fool to believe otherwise. 3. Pick a UN or US sanctioned regime and I guarantee you can find goods flowing via PLA generals and 6/n
senior CCP leader protected shell companies. Kim Jong Un doesn't get high speed internet without US components or PLA generals willing to smuggle him the good stuff. This leads back to the ultimate point that no one wants to talk about. This isn't about steel tariff dumping 7/n
This is about the values of the CCP and them promoting at all costs an authoritarian governance system domestically, with allies, and globally. Trump is an astoundingly imperfect leader to pick up this torch but that who I have to work with at the moment. When DC bag men 8/n
Like the @BrookingsChina and @PIIE stop slinging Huawei-CCP approved PR, it becomes reasonable to say, how can freedom loving countries come together to deal with arguably a bigger threat than the USSR. Beijing has a very clear objective to spread authoritarian governance 9/n
I wish it wasn't Trump that was President, but the abdication of responsibility by DC to deal with the Chinese threat has left us where we are today. This deserves greater statesman and recognition of reality than what currently exists.
