The world has gotten stupider under Trump because people don't even care about the issue with everything framed in relation to Trump. The term I like is what is the Presidential Wins Above Replacement and think about what would happen with any replacement politician? 1/n
If you're looking at Huawei, take the decision solely on the merits regardless of country, Trump, and China. There is no reason you would choose Huawei. Even the countries like the UK that have tentatively said yes (subject to big fights) admit they are enormous risks. 2/n
We know Huawei has zero days, hard coded entries, and security flaws you could drive a truck through. The UK blocked ZTE as being a security risk. The UK Huawei Oversight Board has many years of reports describing the risks and security failures of Huawei and saying Huawei 3/n
Refuses to fix the security flaws that are so easily identifiable. So why is London leaning towards legislation to allow Huawei? Money. Think of a major UK politician, civil servant, telecom firm, or university, they are now accepting CCP money (sometimes directly) and being 4/n
Threatened by Beijing. You think it is any coincidence British Telecom got the first Chinese mobile license days after the tentative announcement to allow Huawei? So what does this have to do with PWAR? The simple shallow narrative pushed by journalists who don't know what 5/n
they are talking about is that this is a simple repudiation of Trump. The issues however are much much deeper. In reality, any president right now would find it very difficult to convince London and Berlin to ban Huawei because of the depth of compromised and purchased 6/n
persons representing Huawei and the CCP. Notably, part of the reason Huawei is so entrenched in Europe is because the Obama administration did NOTHING to push back when Huawei tried to make inroads beginning in 2010. Obama maintained the domestic ban but did nothing to push 7/n
This to allies making the current fight enormously more difficult. Trump is the first president to take the Huawei fight abroad really. What is finally notable is that not only do the technical reasons argue in favor of banning Huawei regardless of who is the US president 8/n
We can critique how the Trump administration has gone about this, but their policies are not only long time policies of the US government but simply pushing them given the threat that should widely be recognized. While may argue that Trump is a major break in US 9/n
Foreign policy, in most every way (couple of outliers) this really is untrue. NATO and SCS just to name a few and building upon previous policies. What is so ironic in this whole ongoing dispute is that Europe likes to hold themselves up as the defender of human rights 10/n
and liberal democracy in the age of Trump but the sad reality is that London is offering up its IT security so BT can gain entry to China. Berlin is offering up its internet as Volkswagen operates plants nearby Xinjiang prisons. The only country to pass and impose penalties 11/n
on China and Hong Kong leadership or firms is the United States. In a way, it is decidedly more principled. Stylistically, Europe and Trump could not be more different. In policy, Europe is more craven and money hungry than the US accepting costs to challenging Chinese abuses.
