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Comment by jbay808 | Hacker News Reader

I don't have an issue with Huawei phones being available. I have the option not to buy them. It's not the same as network equipment.

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But if Huawei is a Chinese spy, shouldn't the government put some restrictions on that too for public benefit?

But they can't with the ban-but-not-a-ban on Huawei. It would be too obvious that there was a ban if providers scrubbed Huawei consumer products entirely, and those consumers pay the price.

And while you have the option to not buy them, it's not so easy to avoid communication with anyone with a Huawei device.

They just have to ban them from secure zones / departments, and companies that value their security can ban them internally.

If you don't trust who you're communicating with to follow the same measures, then you shouldn't be sending them your secrets.

Disclaimer: China national working for the American company behind Android; opinions are my own.

> But if Huawei is a Chinese spy

Has Huawei been caught with a smoking gun? Is Huawei worse in terms of security compared to other telecom suppliers?

If (national) security is really Canada's top priority, it seems the most needed ban is on American consumer products/websites [0]?

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)

> Has Huawei been caught with a smoking gun?

If govs knew, they wouldn't publish it to avoid straining already strained relationships. But would do behind-the-scenes work to keep Huawei out of critical infrastructure.

Edit: the risk may be theoretical, but we know all equipment can be bugged. Not a terrible decision to be bugged by a close ally.

Canada is happy to share data with USA and vice-versa. Perhaps gov should fear USA more, but currently they don't.

> If govs knew, they wouldn't publish it to avoid straining already strained relationships. But would do behind-the-scenes work to keep Huawei out of critical infrastructure.

I don't follow; the Western world has put sanctions on China in the past [0], I don't think they would avoid straining their relationships with China in a situation like this.

> Canada is happy to share data with USA and vice-versa.

I don't think sharing is the same as being spied on... Or you mean Canada and America are sharing the information obtained via spying? That would make sense.

[0]: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/04/opinions/tiananmen-sanctions-...

> I don't follow; the Western world has put sanctions on China in the past [0], I don't think they would avoid straining their relationships with China in a situation like this.

Those weren't economic sanctions, but focussed ones. And against a much less economically-important China. If China cutoff a country in '89, whatever. In '20, uh oh.

The US already strong-armed Canada into arresting Huawei's CFO/founder's daughter. Things are a bit strained at the moment.

>> Those weren't economic sanctions, but focussed ones. And against a much less economically-important China

The lifting of some of those sanctions probably helped China become as economically-important as they are now.

I remember buying computer hardware in the 80s and 90s. There was always a threatening information slip or page in the box that warned about penalties against export of the technology to countries like China. And now? Most of that export-controlled stuff is produced there.

Canada generally shares the same views on democracy as the US; and, more importantly, is part of the same intelligence alliance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

> and, more importantly, is part of the same intelligence alliance

that's exactly why you shouldn't use American network equipment. The Canadian government cannot spy on Canadian citizens due to legal restriction. So instead it tells the CIA to spy on you and then share what they learnt through the intelligence alliance.

Evidence of parallel construction that direction doesn’t seem to exist much. Even if that were the case, that’s still preferable to the Canadian government because it’s at their request. If China is doing it, it’s just a black box of blackmail collection and IP theft.

1) Canada is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing program so they likely already have access to PRISM data.

2) US is a democracy with an independent judiciary and media. China is not.

You can’t really have an opinion since if you say something bad about China you’ll go to jail.

Did you ask for the same for Apple after the Snowden revelations?

If the telecom industry in Canada was competitive enough, you would have had the choice. Like in South Korea LG Plus is using Huawei while others are using Nokia or Ericsson

You're not wrong about this, but it still doesn't bother me that they offer Huawei handsets.

I just wish they'd offer Sony's...

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