For the past two days IT news services have been buzzing about the slap Chinese telecom equipment makers Huawei Technologies and ZTE were given this week by a U.S. Congressional committee. But Forbes columnist Dan Ikenson suggests here that it was more like a beating.
The politicians’ report isn’t comfortable reading: They say they couldn’t get answers to a number of its questions, including Huawei’s relationship with a Communist Party commitee within the company. Such a committee is required in all companies, Huawei told Congressmen.
“In essence, these committees provide a shadow source of power and influence directing, even in subtle ways, the direction and movement of economic resources in China,” the report says.
But Ikenson argues there is “no smoking gun in the report, only innuendo.” The worst, he says,is that Huawei and ZTE is that the companies were “evasive or incomplete” on some questions — particularl those that would have revealed strategic corporate information.
“[T]he report’s recommendations reveal more of a trade protectionist agenda than a critical infrastructure protection agenda,” he argues. And after reading it, it’s hard not to disagree. In my story yesterday there’s a link to the report. I hope you read it. Let me know what you conclude.