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China

Contractor Accuses Huawei of Stealing Technology, Pressuring Them for a 'Back Door' (livemint.com) 42

The Wall Street Journal reports: A long-running dispute between Huawei Technologies Co. and a small U.S.-based contractor has escalated to U.S. federal court, with the contractor alleging Huawei stole its technology and pressured it to build a "back door" into a sensitive law-enforcement project in Pakistan. The contractor, Buena Park, Calif.-based Business Efficiency Solutions LLC, or BES, says in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in California district court that Huawei required it to set up a system in China that gives Huawei access to sensitive information about citizens and government officials from a safe-cities surveillance project in Pakistan's second-largest city of Lahore...

Muhammad Kamran Khan, chief operating officer of the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, which oversees the Lahore project, said the authority has begun looking into BES's allegations.

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Contractor Accuses Huawei of Stealing Technology, Pressuring Them for a 'Back Door'

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  • by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @02:52PM (#61695333) Journal

    According to the lawsuit, Huawei initially said it wasn’t necessary to get approval for what it called a test and threatened to withhold payments and terminate its agreements with BES if the contractor didn’t build the system.

    Later, the lawsuit says, Huawei told BES it had indeed received Pakistani approval, and BES went ahead with the installation in Suzhou.

    And why would the Pakistanis approve such a thing in the first place? Hint no sane government would.

  • Is it too soon to say that China is at war with the rest of the world?
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Definitely not too soon. [wb40podcast.com]

    • by aerogems ( 339274 ) on Sunday August 15, 2021 @03:46PM (#61695449)

      I wouldn't say they're "at war" with the world so much as they see themselves as a star ascendant on the world stage again. The US, let's face it, has been in decline for some time now, and China is looking to step up and fill the void. They have a very different view of how things should be done compared to us. Eastern cultures tend to be much more collectivist, while Western cultures are more individualistic. You can debate the relative merits of each system all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that maintaining order is the primary goal of the Chinese government, and that goal drives almost every action they take. They are looking to expand their sphere of influence beyond just the Asia PAC region now that we live in an era where you can physically get anywhere in the world within a single day and we have means of communicating with people across basically any distance almost instantaneously, unlike the last time China was a major player on the world stage.

    • China has a funny international relation strategy that seems to move in two directions. On the one hand, they go with technological progress and economic dominance. On the other hand, they move their goalposts back into previous historical marks one by one.

      Right now, the second one is being practice through that Nine Dashes nonsense, that is, an old map drawn by someone stating this and that sea region is theirs means its theirs because it said so.

      My own guess is that all of that will culminate with the Chi

      • I pray it be so, for they shall die rapidly invading Vietnam.

        • I pray it be so, for they shall die rapidly invading Vietnam.

          They're patient enough not to do that. It doesn't matter for the CCP whether it takes 5 years or 50, all that matters is that they slowly but surely kneel. Where military action won't work, there's diplomacy. There where diplomacy doesn't work, there's economic soft power. There where even economic soft power doesn't work, there's time, which always can bring about one of the other ones. That's the advantage of any government capable of planning over time spans of decades and more.

          To combat that one also ne

          • Vietnam doesn't care about any of that shit, everybody else tried that on them for 300 years. China's new at it.

            China is a young nation, they do not have experience planning over long time spans. Vietnam does have that experience.

            For example, much of the long history China claims as its own is actually when they were ruled by the Mongols.

            The Mongols tried also invaded Vietnam three times, are were defeated.

            • Does Vietnam have nuclear bombs and ICBMs? If not, then they have no deterrence against China if China were to really go for it, or rather, the only deterrence they have is the international Westphalian order. If that one falls -- and it falling is one of China's long term external policy goals -- things get murkier.

              • Wait, you think China can gain influence in the world by nuking Vietnam? lol

                Moron detected! It's like when President Trump asked, "Why can't we use them??"

                • Wait, you think China can gain influence in the world by nuking Vietnam?

                  Yes! That's what I said! I wrote this in... er... somewhere only you know about! That's where I argued for exactly this!

        • In the last Vietnam war, there is persistent evidence, that land was given back to China, and the sea rights of at least North Vietnam was surrendered to the Chinese. Apparently enforcement of the new Vietnamese 'Marine reserve' is reserved for Chinese fishing fleets, that also open fire on traditional .vn fisherpersons. As for the American company, a lawsuit is they last thing they wanted - indicating they lost money on the deal, and they are probably being truthful. The bizarre thing is, that this is i
      • China is pushing the 9 dash line because they need to protect their trade routes. The whole "It was always ours" is just political spin to justify their national security goals. Just like their invasion and annexation of the country of Tibet was about having defendable borders, better control of water, and more farmland.
        • The whole "It was always ours" is just political spin to justify their national security goals.

          Of course, but they also love to play by the (letter, not spirit of) book. For instance, one thing that baffles foreigners is their very atypical brand of religious persecution, which consists on demolishing shrines and temples to then rebuild them in a smaller size. We look at that and think "what the f***ing f**k!?" But the motivation becomes clear when one looks at what Mencius says of the Mandate of Heaven:

          "The people are of supreme importance; the altars of the gods of earth and grain come next; last c

      • China can be a head scratcher sometimes. On one hand, they see the long view and don't just chase after dollars this fiscal quarter like US companies do. On the other hand, they make decisions that just don't make sense, like their decisions with European relations.

      • While I agree in most also note that China is about 30-40 years from collapsing. Why? Because china went from a model of political stability with regular leadership changes to one of instability with XI president for life with no succession plan.

        The next 2-3 presidents after XI will try to duplicate his power fail and take china down with them.

        So says every single democracy turned monarchy ever. (For whatever values of democracy and monarchy china is using)

        • note that China is about 30-40 years from collapsing

          Well, when it comes to China that isn't uncommon. If there's one constant in Chinese history it's that power cycles tend to be composed of periods of utter chaos followed by stability, followed by utter chaos, followed by stability, and so on and so forth.

          That said, it's pretty possible Xitler will define a succession protocol when he's older. That may or may not work. If it does work, it could be centuries before China goes into chaos again.

    • by sd4f ( 1891894 )

      This is nothing new. There has always been a lot of spying going on, in the classical sense. All that has changed is that China is putting a lot of effort, and getting caught doing it in the digital frontier.

      Thing is, when the USA has been caught spying on its allies, no one considered that as an act of war.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Chinese intelligence agency should have hand picked a US based contractor in financial difficulties and with owners who aren't as scrupulous
    • The whole thing is dubious in the extreme.

      It's the first time ever I see a Western company do anything of note on a Huawei bid as a subcontractor with access to the actual Huawei part of the deal. They usually hire these only for smoke, mirrors and PR. All the real work is done by smily people from Huawei HQ.

      • That which you have not personally seen, cannot exist. Such is the Divine Light of kot-begemot-uk, Seer of the Sol System.

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