[dnomad]

This isn't really about spying. The reality is that Huawei's equipment is the best in the world for the money. It's not even close. Given a free market (remember that?) there's really no doubt that Huawei will go on to completely dominate this market over the next decade. It's already the largest telecom equipment maker in the world [1] and its size only makes its products and architects more and more competitive with each day. It's a virtuous cycle at work that nobody can deny anymore. The numbers don't lie: what you have here is a technologically sophisticated market where the West cannot compete with China at all. This is supposed to be impossible!

Now there is a legitimate national security concern about having the world's telecom equipment manufactured by a single company. But there's only so much can do under existing trade treaties. It's also really not a good look for the US and the West to be seen actively trying to disrupt the free market at work. And so we get this concocted story about spying. It's concocted because nobody, despite spending millions and millions of dollars investigating Huawei and studying its boxes, has ever shown the company participating in anything like espionage. Most people can see through this blatant protectionist hypocrisy [2]. Ironically all the security research on Huawei has only served to make their products much more secure than the competition.

[1] https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-03-19/huawei-now-worlds-la...

[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/11/comment_huawei_usa/

[sonnyblarney]

" Given a free market (remember that?)"

Huawei is a state-backed organization working from a closed, controlled economy where not even information, let alone products, services and capital flow freely.

So if the cost of having to inspect every single piece of Huawei gear, plus check and load the software still keeps them 'competitive' then it might be worth it to outsiders, but probably not.

Given that it's commodity gear, perhaps someone will come along, say from Taiwan ... and produce the same thing at competitive costs, wherein security is not a factor and then, yes, that entity would be poised to dominate on price.