
U.S. lawmakers want Google to reconsider links to China's Huawei - vthallam
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-congress-alphabet/u-s-lawmakers-want-google-to-reconsider-links-to-chinas-huawei-idUSKBN1JG2YK
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echevil
With Huawei being the second largest Android vendor after Samsung, there is
nothing unnatural if Google wants to collaborate with Huawei to make better
phones. They might also want to collaborate with the 3rd and 4th largest
vendors, Xiaomi and Oppo

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BigChiefSmokem
Our current administration's push towards Isolationism and against Globalism
has hit the hills of Silicon Valley.

Personally, I agree with the U.S. Govt here. I don't trust China either and
neither should Google after they were effectively kicked out of that market.
Android be damned - let them figure out their own technology. We need to just
start manufacturing things here, with armies of robots if we have to. Let's
compete for real with the rest of the world.

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Apocryphon
If only HTC had not dwindled. Remember when they used to quietly make the
majority of Android phones?

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throwawayjava
_> “While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful
tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we
are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support
the Chinese Communist Party than the U.S. military,” they wrote._

The amount of cognitive dissonance in this quote is ridiculous. When I
originally read this qoute, I was expecting to find further down that Google
is doing defense research with China.

But nope. Google is contracting with a Chinese manufacturer to build cell
phones, not performing weaponized AI research with the People's Liberation
Army.

Apparently, it's unpatriotic and borderline traitorous to say "you know what?
I'd rather focus on building some decent cellphones instead of finding new
ways to kill people from afar."

~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
Miniaturizing electronics, increase battery, signal processing, improved
cameras, ML on phones, voice and command recognition on phones, computational
photography, object detection on phones - are just some of the stuff that can
be used to improve phones, but are really easy to find military uses for.

~~~
mark_edward
If google co-operates with teaching kinematics to Chinese teenagers, many of
those teenagers may grow up to use them to shoot rockets at the US.

~~~
gisely
We can't help them to learn arithmetic either! They'll raise a generation of
killer robot engineers and enslave us ;)

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foobarbazetc
Ah... Tom Cotton. So this can be ignored.

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alexbeloi
“While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful
tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we
are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support
the Chinese Communist Party than the U.S. military,” they[0] wrote.

[0] The letter was signed by Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio,
Republican Representatives Michael Conaway and Liz Cheney, and Democratic
Representative Dutch Ruppersberger.

~~~
sremani
They are more impatient than I thought. This is meant to be read between the
lines. I would be amazed if some Google exec is not already on his/her way to
D.C. to meet the esteemed Senators.

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tonyduncan
It’s a new low even for U.S. lawmakers.

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phobosdeimos
Apparently nobody in DC understands how capitalism works.If the worst happens
Alphabet can always spin off a subsidiary, or maybe teach US lawmakers that
global corporations can change headquarters very quickly if threatened.

~~~
adventured
> or maybe teach US lawmakers that global corporations can change headquarters
> very quickly if threatened.

That's incorrect. The US was willing to do almost anything necessary to
prevent Pfizer from pulling an inversion and moving their HQ. They can craft
legislation & rules almost overnight and stop Google from being able to easily
move HQ.

If that power move somehow fails, they can go a more malevolent direction (see
Joseph Nacchio) to make an example of you. Big tech is very, very aware of
this fact. That's why they all got in line (eventually) and signed on to prism
et al. The Feds were perfectly willingly to bankrupt Yahoo for example, if
they kept resisting. [1]

The US is not an unregulated free market. The US is a massively regulated
welfare state with dramatic intervention into the economy by the Federal and
State governments. 40 or 50 years ago it may have been reasonable to call it a
mixed economy, the power and size of the state has drastically increased since
~1970.

[1] [https://www.wired.com/2014/09/feds-yahoo-fine-
prism/](https://www.wired.com/2014/09/feds-yahoo-fine-prism/)

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pkaye
I agree after the disaster that was the Nexus 6P. After one year the $500
phone proceeds to boot loop. Huawei says they can't do anything because they
ran out of replacement parts. Soon after my spouses 6P does the same. Out
$1000. Luckily my credit card warranty paid me back the full amount. I'll
never buy Huawei products again.

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supermatt
Sorry for your story but it’s not related in the slightest

