> While I have no doubt than basically anything from China is probably backdoored (and to the fault of western countries outsourcing manufacturing for cheap labour), what exactly has Huawei done?
Some others have pointed out some Huawei incidents, but that’s not the big problem.
The big problem is, if you build your entire telecom infrastructure on Huawei gear, and then you go to war, it will then be weaponized. In the best case scenario, you have a telecom infrastructure for which you can’t get any parts, patches, or support. Replacing your entire telecom infrastructure is not something you want to do during the opening months of WWIII.
It’s the same reason why we don’t want to rely on Chinese parts for our missiles.
I think this would also cover Cisco though, perhaps not so broadly. Our entire electronics industry is critically dependent on China for manufacturing.
Thankfully the truly advanced stuff exists in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and the EU. But for cheap mass manufacturing, all of these parts end up in China.
The west really needs to suck it up and have electronics designed and manufactured in the west. There are some good signs with the CHIPs act (if only the American companies were as patriotic instead of optimising for share price) and the EU are also making moves to be self sufficient for silicon. However, the entire electronics chain really needs local alternatives. It's crazy that I can get a prototype PCB manufactured and delivered from China faster and cheaper than anywhere local.
The difference with Cisco is they’d want (/be required by shareholders) to continue to operate and shift production to other countries where electronics manufacturing does exist. And they have a management structure that is not beholden to CCP law.
Some others have pointed out some Huawei incidents, but that’s not the big problem.
The big problem is, if you build your entire telecom infrastructure on Huawei gear, and then you go to war, it will then be weaponized. In the best case scenario, you have a telecom infrastructure for which you can’t get any parts, patches, or support. Replacing your entire telecom infrastructure is not something you want to do during the opening months of WWIII.
It’s the same reason why we don’t want to rely on Chinese parts for our missiles.