It's very difficult to find vulnerabilities that are buried deep down on the hardware level. It's also possible to introduce vulnerabilities later e.g. through firmware updates or implants.
My guess is that they are concerned primarily because they know how it can be done from their own experience.
It can't be much worse than it's now, where they are effectively blocked from entering some of the biggest markets.
And China has credibility when it comes to "not spying"? Just look at the recent activities by "Hafnium".
It's not like China hasn't done the same thing. Part of the reason why Huawei was able to catch up to the established leaders in this space in such a short time is that China built barriers of entry in their huge domestic market that gave Huawei an advantage over companies like Ericsson and Nokia (and yes, they also stole technology in the 00's).
It may be difficult to find deeply buried vulnerabilities, but if you are a vendor who *knows* they are under a microscope and have something to prove, it would be stupid to take the risk that your “deeply buried” vulnerability will be discovered. Best not to deliberately introduce one in the first place. I think this is pretty evident.
And yes, “it can’t be much worse than now”, but Huawei was operating when that wasn’t “now” and the UNJUSTIFIED sanctions were put in place *subsequently* that made it “that much worse” - Huawei stupidly counted on the fairness of the U.S., and miscalculated... the U.S. does not behave fairly.
Of course China has no credibility when it comes to spying, that’s the whole point, which is why when they present extremely high profile goods in a key technology they know they’ll be looked over with a microscope, so to now cheat would’ve been extremely stupid. No, what is new is the revelation (from Snowden among others) that the *U.S.* is a venal, lying, spying entity that does this to supposed allies and friends. The Chinese start with little credibility because nobody trusts totalitarian regimes - what is new is that the U.S. apparently is no better when it comes to the dirty tricks department.
Again, of course China has behaved badly vs Western companies, stealing IP and doing forced transfers and so on. But what’s now clear is that the West is not much better as their treatment of Huawei shows. The point is that China never had the moral high ground, but the world listened to the West because the U.S. and the West is supposed to be a bastion of fair play. But when we behave in a similar way, we LOSE that moral high ground and it’s no longer good guys vs bad buys, it now becomes a squabble among all bad guys, as we are one of the bad guys.
It’s worth protecting your moral high ground. That’s why the unfair treatment of Huawei is a short term “win” at the cost of long term victory - ”sure, you managed to rob me, so enjoy the spoils, but now, you’re just a robber like me, and that in itself is worth the price - your words no longer count”.
The U.S. has lost the moral high ground - it’s called ”soft power”. When the world sees you as no better than the other guy, they stop listening to you. Ask yourself how has the U.S. international standing fallen in the last few years and was it worth it for the few measly fruits of unfair practices?
As to the joker who cannot see the forest for the trees wrt. Uighurs - there is no point in responding to someone who cannot see the difference between Nazi extermination camps where the sole purpose was to kill and exterminate millions of people and the Uighur camps, which however bad are not the same thing at all - not even in the same league (or other genocides like the millions of Tutsis in Rwanda etc., and China’s killing of millions of their citizens under Mao). So I’ll no longer respond to someone who also misrepresents my positions (I explicitly said that only SOME Uighurs were terrorists, and not that “all“ were, or “all Muslims”) - when you start lying, no further rational discussion is possible. What the Chinese are doing is clearly oppressing the Uighurs, and what we have done is no better vs other minorities, so we are not exactly on high moral ground to pitch our stones from - a little HUMILITY is what I’m calling for, get off your high horse, because the horse is not high, you are standing in a pit of disgrace yourself - take the log out from your own eye before you complain about the spec in the other guy’s eye... that’s what happens when you lose your moral high ground, you just sound like a hypocrite whose words have no value. Clean your own house first and only then complain about the dirt in someone else’s house.
