

It's official: NSA spying is hurting the US tech economy - rdl
http://www.zdnet.com/article/another-reason-to-hate-the-nsa-china-is-backing-away-from-us-tech-brands/

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strictnein
Someone toned the title down just a smidge from the original, which is still
in the URL:

> another-reason-to-hate-the-nsa-china-is-backing-away-from-us-tech-brands

Anyways, the equation also isn't that simple. The "black" budget of the US is
$50-$60 billion a year. A significant portion of that is on tech, especially
with the NSA. You don't store exabytes and have the world's most powerful
supercomputers without buying a lot of hardware.

I'm not saying there isn't damage done, but this is just clickbait. It's light
on specifics (outside of Cisco), and some of the issues have nothing to do
with the NSA. HP is struggling in China because China is favoring local
companies. China has had a history of backing away from foreign companies to
bring tech in-house. This is actually what the original, non-filtered-through-
zdnet article says: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-china-tech-
excl...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/us-china-tech-exclusive-
idUSKBN0LT1B020150225)

The Reuters article has far more information. The ZDnet article is just
someone filling their allotted articles for the day.

~~~
strictnein
An interesting note at the end of the Reuters article:

> "The danger for China, say experts, is that it could leave itself dependent
> on domestic technology, which remains inferior to foreign market leaders and
> more vulnerable to cyber attack.

> Some of those benefiting from policies encouraging domestic procurement
> accept that Chinese companies trail foreign competitors in the security
> sphere."

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mc32
Alternatively, NSA spying causes knee-jerk reaction in China government to
source locally, paradoxically, leaving China more susceptible to hacking.

Long term it has the potential to do two things: Great jumpstart to local tech
companies, or emergence of mediocre technology due to low competition.

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dTal
They forgot to factor in all the industrial espionage the NSA is no doubt
doing. Sure, there might be a little fallout here and there, but who's to say
the US isn't still miles ahead?

