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Shoe doesn't feel as nice on the other foot I guess. In all honestly from the few products I see that come across the various tech review outlets I follow, Hua

Shoe doesn't feel as nice on the other foot I guess. In all honestly from the few products I see that come across the various tech review outlets I follow, Huawei seems to do some decent work. But the whole economic situation with China is complicated...mostly due to their own heavy handed protectionist policies. From a cursory following, it certainly seems like the Chinese market in particular is biased at regulatory levels against foreign companies.

hacknat 9y ago
Yeah. I was about to say don’t get mad at the West, because we don’t trust you, get mad at your own government. If China was a free and open society to the point where I could simply understand the relationship their businesses have with their government than we don’t have a problem, but that relationship is just too murky for my liking right now.
- interstitial 9y ago
  yes, but that doesn't give you self-righteous, America-shaming browning points on the internet.
Chaebixi 9y ago
Yeah, he should come back with a 50:50 joint venture with a US manufacturer.
willow9886 9y ago
Agreed. Where is Google in China? FB? YouTube? Twitter? GitHub? ... the list goes on and on. This decision does affect US consumers, but not in a significant way...we still have access to cheap smartphones. Chinese companies can't have their cake and eat it too!
- kharms 9y ago
  If there is an effect on the US consumer, it's at the wireless service level not phone level. >Huawei engineers and executives also make regular visits to U.S. carriers to show off new technology, and the potential cost savings are “significant”—sometimes even half off competitors’ prices, says one former U.S. telecom executive. >U.S. wireless service costs $41 per month per customer on average, according to the data and analytics firm—second only to Canada, which also largely discourages Huawei equipment. In the U.K., where Huawei is allowed but closely scrutinized, the average wireless bill is $23 a month. https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-long-seen-as-spy-threat-rolled-over-u-s-road-bumps-1515453829 https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-long-seen-as-spy-threat-...
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    Telco price gouging has nothing to do with shunning Huawei.
  - chatmasta 9y ago
    Does anyone really believe that even I f the US carriers saved 50% on capital costs by purchasing Huawei products, they would pass these savings into the consumer?
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
China is a centrally planned economy isn't it, if that's the measure against which you compare the openness and political interference in your supposed free market economy then I think you've got major problems.
- iforgotpassword 9y ago
  > China is a centrally planned economy isn't it No, this is something that doesn't exist in reality, or doesn't work to be precise. China is capitalist, in fact more capitalist than pretty much any western country, but only when it comes to domestic market. Towards the west they're ultra protectionist.
  - Chaebixi 9y ago
    > China is capitalist Lots of its companies are state-run or otherwise state-owned. It definitely takes some "capitalist" practices to the next level compared to the rest, but it is its own weird thing.
kylehotchkiss 9y ago
I got a Huawei international hotspot since I couldn't find any familiar brands offering one that worked well where I wanted to go, and I was impressed by the price, packaging, and the product itself. Huawei makes good products.
chatmasta 9y ago
Protectionist is a good way of describing it. The general strategy in China is to handicap foreign corporations sufficiently so that domestic competitors can establish a foothold in the market before the network effects of foreign companies become stifling to new entrants. This is especially true of tech companies. Chinese Internet censors degrade the quality of major US corporations so much that their products are nearly unusable, thus opening opportunities for domestic competitors. We’ve seen this play out with Google/Baidu, Facebook/Weibo, Uber/Didi, Amazon/Alibaba, etc. Most people see the Great Firewall (GFW) as a tool for suppression of political dissent. However it also serves as an effective tool for economic control, protectionism and favoritism. In college I took a class called “The Next China,” where I argued in my final paper that the GFW serves primarily as a tool for economic control, and only secondarily as a political tool. Realistically, there are arguments to be made that maintaining the GFW is in the best interest of the Chinese state, its economy and its people. It has certainly benefited them so far, as China now has a thriving domestic economy that is becoming more vertically integrated and service-driven every day. Before anyone gets too upset about this, consider that the US often does the same, albeit on more of a regulatory level than a political one. Some examples are import taxes, financial compliance requirements, and upcoming data regulation. These all serve as tools that implicitly favor domestic companies over foreign ones.
- Chaebixi 9y ago
  > Protectionist is a good way of describing it. The general strategy in China is to handicap foreign corporations sufficiently so that domestic competitors can establish a foothold in the market before the network effects of foreign companies become stifling to new entrants. They also dangle the carrot of access to their market in front of Western companies in order to encourage up-front technology and skill transfer. In the end, it's only to benefit their domestic companies as the western ones are eventually hobbled and shut out.
rconti 9y ago
And, of course, if consumers really want your device, they can just buy it and activate it on their network. Nobody's locking anyone out of anything. The first few phones I bought were done this way. I even used UK or European chargers on US adapters just to keep my phone topped off back in the "bad old days" when chargers were not (relatively) universal.

hacknat 9y ago

Yeah. I was about to say don’t get mad at the West, because we don’t trust you, get mad at your own government. If China was a free and open society to the point where I could simply understand the relationship their businesses have with their government than we don’t have a problem, but that relationship is just too murky for my liking right now.

interstitial 9y ago
yes, but that doesn't give you self-righteous, America-shaming browning points on the internet.

Chaebixi 9y ago

Yeah, he should come back with a 50:50 joint venture with a US manufacturer.

willow9886 9y ago

Agreed. Where is Google in China? FB? YouTube? Twitter? GitHub? ... the list goes on and on. This decision does affect US consumers, but not in a significant way...we still have access to cheap smartphones. Chinese companies can't have their cake and eat it too!

kharms 9y ago
If there is an effect on the US consumer, it's at the wireless service level not phone level. >Huawei engineers and executives also make regular visits to U.S. carriers to show off new technology, and the potential cost savings are “significant”—sometimes even half off competitors’ prices, says one former U.S. telecom executive. >U.S. wireless service costs $41 per month per customer on average, according to the data and analytics firm—second only to Canada, which also largely discourages Huawei equipment. In the U.K., where Huawei is allowed but closely scrutinized, the average wireless bill is $23 a month. https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-long-seen-as-spy-threat-rolled-over-u-s-road-bumps-1515453829 https://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-long-seen-as-spy-threat-...
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  Telco price gouging has nothing to do with shunning Huawei.
- chatmasta 9y ago
  Does anyone really believe that even I f the US carriers saved 50% on capital costs by purchasing Huawei products, they would pass these savings into the consumer?

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

China is a centrally planned economy isn't it, if that's the measure against which you compare the openness and political interference in your supposed free market economy then I think you've got major problems.

iforgotpassword 9y ago
> China is a centrally planned economy isn't it No, this is something that doesn't exist in reality, or doesn't work to be precise. China is capitalist, in fact more capitalist than pretty much any western country, but only when it comes to domestic market. Towards the west they're ultra protectionist.
- Chaebixi 9y ago
  > China is capitalist Lots of its companies are state-run or otherwise state-owned. It definitely takes some "capitalist" practices to the next level compared to the rest, but it is its own weird thing.

kylehotchkiss 9y ago

I got a Huawei international hotspot since I couldn't find any familiar brands offering one that worked well where I wanted to go, and I was impressed by the price, packaging, and the product itself. Huawei makes good products.

chatmasta 9y ago

Protectionist is a good way of describing it. The general strategy in China is to handicap foreign corporations sufficiently so that domestic competitors can establish a foothold in the market before the network effects of foreign companies become stifling to new entrants. This is especially true of tech companies. Chinese Internet censors degrade the quality of major US corporations so much that their products are nearly unusable, thus opening opportunities for domestic competitors. We’ve seen this play out with Google/Baidu, Facebook/Weibo, Uber/Didi, Amazon/Alibaba, etc. Most people see the Great Firewall (GFW) as a tool for suppression of political dissent. However it also serves as an effective tool for economic control, protectionism and favoritism. In college I took a class called “The Next China,” where I argued in my final paper that the GFW serves primarily as a tool for economic control, and only secondarily as a political tool. Realistically, there are arguments to be made that maintaining the GFW is in the best interest of the Chinese state, its economy and its people. It has certainly benefited them so far, as China now has a thriving domestic economy that is becoming more vertically integrated and service-driven every day. Before anyone gets too upset about this, consider that the US often does the same, albeit on more of a regulatory level than a political one. Some examples are import taxes, financial compliance requirements, and upcoming data regulation. These all serve as tools that implicitly favor domestic companies over foreign ones.

Chaebixi 9y ago
> Protectionist is a good way of describing it. The general strategy in China is to handicap foreign corporations sufficiently so that domestic competitors can establish a foothold in the market before the network effects of foreign companies become stifling to new entrants. They also dangle the carrot of access to their market in front of Western companies in order to encourage up-front technology and skill transfer. In the end, it's only to benefit their domestic companies as the western ones are eventually hobbled and shut out.

rconti 9y ago

And, of course, if consumers really want your device, they can just buy it and activate it on their network. Nobody's locking anyone out of anything. The first few phones I bought were done this way. I even used UK or European chargers on US adapters just to keep my phone topped off back in the "bad old days" when chargers were not (relatively) universal.