Thread by @pmdfoster

Ruh-oh. But to me the risk of ‘backdoors’, if they exist, was never the real issue with #Huawei decision. The problem was strategic shortsightedness.

By which I mean.... 1/

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1227326738390224901

1. #huawei is a company the cant/won’t list on a stick exchange because it could make the transparency requirements /2

nytimes.com/2019/04/25/tec…

2. In any event, no company in China (let alone Xi Jinping’s China) reaches that scale without govt control of one sort or another. You don’t need conspiracy theories about this PLA founder to see that /3

3. If the product is 20% or 30% cheaper than Western rivals, that’s not an accident. If you don’t know why you’re getting a bargain from China you should be wary. It’s not a place that does stuff for free, speaking as a former China Corr /4

4. Our main security partners (the US/Five Eyes) don’t want us to use it. That’s a good enough reason not to. /5

5. Following that - backdoors or none - China has succeeded in driving a wedge between US/U.K. as @SebastianEPayne scoop on @realDonaldTrump phone call showed. They will have loved that in Zhongnanhai. Job done. /6

6. There is NO way China would allow the US or U.K. to build its strategic infrastructure. If they won’t, why would we?/7

7. I take the point about market failure of Western alternatives, but if that means a delay of a year or two, so be it in my view. Do you think the Chinese think on those kind of time horizons? /8

For all those reasons it was a bad decision in my view, dressed up as strategic savvy when it was really shortsightedness.

I am not a Cold War warrior but I have lived and worked in China. My guess is they’re loving amazed at U.K. folly. That doesn’t make me comfortable. ENDS