TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- The Chinese company Huawei, founded in Shenzhen in 1987, has become one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of telecom equipment in the world. It claims to be a private corporation operating independently of the Chinese authorities. Huawei Chairman Liang Hua (梁華), meanwhile, insists the company does not represent China’s government.
Huawei is currently competing for market share in the United Kingdom and European Union and on Friday (May 17) said that it is prepared to sign a “no-spy agreement” to satisfy potential clients it will not use its technology for surveillance and there is no “back door” in the equipment it sells.
This old narrative, however, is not widely accepted by those who see the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as it truly is. “Old habits die hard” and China’s tendency to manufacture knockoffs and conduct business espionage, plus its operational experience from building the Great Firewall infrastructure, make it hard to believe the claim that it will abide by the agreement in the future.
In addition, the National Intelligence Law announced in 2017 states in Article 7 that every organization and citizen “shall support, assist in and cooperate in national intelligence work in accordance with the law and keep confidential the national intelligence work that it or he knows.” Under such a law, Huawei is without question, part of the national intelligence network.
If the CCP wishes to rule China forever, it will use certain ways and means. History suggests they first need to “feed the public properly” and then “brainwash the public” to avoid uprisings that destabilize the leadership class, and finally “use terror to repress the public and to maintain authoritarianism.”
The quickest way to fulfill the first stage of feeding the public is to rob resources from other countries. Not only has China stolen resources from other countries, it has also expanded the acquisition of private enterprises within its borders and made them state-owned.
To “brainwash the public,” it is necessary to deploy obscurantism and to make the public as uninformed as possible. For instance, a democratic country would never build the internet to spy on its people, but that is what CCP has done with the Great Firewall, which monitors and restricts China’s population.
According to Wikipedia, the Chinese public call the Great Firewall the “kung fu web” because it so effectively restricts people’s everyday lives. To connect with the world and understand it, they need to get around the “Wall” to review blocked content and websites. Such content filtering seems remarkably similar to the unfortunate Chinese historical event of “burning of books and burying scholars” (焚書坑儒) during the “literary inquisition”(文字獄). Except, it is probably even more harmful due to facial, voice and gait recognition technologies.
To repress people with terror, the Chinese authorities use “private, unfair, unjust” leadership and rule the country using a central party system that strips the public of its democratic and human rights. For example, CCP imposed the “extradition law” on Hong Kong, walking away from its own promise of “one country, two systems.” In 1989, the CCP brutally cracked down on protesters at Tiananmen Square and opened fire on unarmed students, using an army of 200,000 and tanks to make its presence felt, despite being watched by the world.
Huawei was registered in 1987 and has become one of the largest telecom manufacturers and suppliers in the world. Without CCP support, Huawei would never have become what it is, so quickly. In return, the Chinese authorities will never allow it to exist and operate independently. One resounding example is Alibaba and Jack Ma (馬雲), who relinquished his chairmanship to avoid being “disappeared.” The post was instantly filled by an assigned board member from the CCP.
The US-China trade war, a backlash against the reeducation camps in Xinjiang, and “One Belt One Road” economic colonization are all creating a destabilized economy that could potentially affect the leadership. At the moment, the Communist Party of China is desperate for capital inflows an attention-shifting strategy to stabilize society. By selling Huawei products to other countries the CCP can find instant relief and ease economic pressure. Huawei, meanwhile, can secretly sign a “spy agreement” with the CCP and then plead that it has “no-spy agreements” to other countries.
In conclusion, the CCP will make sure it retains the ways and means to rule the country, “feeding the public properly,” “brainwashing the public,” and “repressing the public with terror.” In terms of when, where, and who will be targeted by the CCP, this will entirely depend on the CCP’s needs.
