
China Exploits Fleet of U.S. Satellites - nwrk
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-exploits-fleet-of-u-s-satellites-to-strengthen-police-and-military-power/ar-BBWdrFk
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boomboomsubban
This story can be summed up by "China buys satellite internet connection, and
also has a terrible human rights record." Nothing shows any real connection
between the two, and the one-sided attack is rather ridiculous. The US
military helped develop this technology exactly for this purpose, and is
actively using it to kill people across the world. On top of that, the main
satellite they mention was sold to Pakistan a year ago, which seems worth
mention if ethical concerns are the issue.

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blueboo
Some of your frustration reflects how the use of "exploits" in the headline
is, for lack of a better word, problematic. In the tech news context,
"exploit" has the connotation (if not denotation) of a hack or bug being used
in an unintended way.

In this case, the word "leverage" would be more appropriate.

~~~
boomboomsubban
Though I see your point, "exploit" is a better choice as the entire point of
the article is to say China is unethical.

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peteretep
If I was America I think I’d want my rivals to be relying on technology
provided by people I can bully into turning it off when needed

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fxfan
That doesn't work.

India relied on GPS and Clinton turned off (regrettably IMHO) India's access
to high precision data in the 2000 Indo-Pak war.

India went on to build their own.

EDIT: Year was probably 1999, not sure.

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bigiain
I remember talking to a sailor in the BOC Solo Round The World race in late
1990. They all knew and talked over radio to each other about "something going
on" in Late July and early August - when their GPSs started reporting much
more accurate CEP numbers, which allowed them to much more accurately detect
the ocean currents they were sailing in and position themselves most favorably
in them.

Because selective availability had been switched off.

They might have been the first civilians to be aware of Gulf War 1...

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Arnt
The same thing happened north of Lofoten, in Norway. The fishermen noticed at
once that their GPS waypoints were much more precise than on the day before.

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factsaresacred
> _U.S. officials and industry players have said the profits American
> satellite exports generated could be reinvested in development to keep the
> U.S ahead._

Lease out our competitive advantage and use the revenue to build more
competitive advantage!

Profit maximization and national security have conflicting incentives.

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DuskStar
Because I'm sure there are no national security benefits from having your
rival route their communications over your infrastructure in such a way that
you can cripple them in a conflict.

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factsaresacred
> _Boeing said it...was neither possible nor required by law to monitor each
> bandwidth user after a satellite it built is in space._

Except it's their infrastructure now.

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halter73
If they don't own or control the satellite, it's not really their
infrastructure when push comes to shove. China might have contracts
guaranteeing bandwidth, but I doubt that matters much in an armed conflict.

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TheOtherHobbes
Nothing would matter much in an armed conflict between the US and China.

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halter73
Armed conflict doesn't necessarily mean all out war.

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jaimex2
Welp. There goes Boeing's government contracts.

Space X will be celebrating this one.

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djohnston
if by "exploit" you mean "rent capacity" then i guess... who is approving this
drivel?

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factsaresacred
Non-paywall version: [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-exploits-
fleet-of...](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-exploits-fleet-of-u-s-
satellites-to-strengthen-police-and-military-power/ar-BBWdrFk)

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azinman2
Anyone with a WSJ account care to summarize the paywall’d article?

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shpx
On HN, underneath the link there's a list of other links. This thing:

43 points by nwrk 2 hours ago | flag | hide | past | web | favorite | 7
comments

Click on the one that says "web" then click on the WSJ url in the search
results and you should get the full article.

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azinman2
Paywall still exists for me even with that route. My understanding was WSJ
changed their policy there.

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mrb
Bypassing the paywall on desktop worked for me using mobile view:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19703810](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19703810)

