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by throw310822 687 days ago
Money can only get you so far; government money often even less. Yes of course, Huawei and the whole high tech IT hardware sector is strategic, and this is both why the US government tried to kneecap China and why the Chinese government intervened to save its companies. But money doesn't turn by itself in technological progress and most other countries wouldn't have managed, even with the same amount of money.
2 comments

>most other countries wouldn't have managed

This is really the crux. I don't think any hightech company from any other country could have survived Huawei tier sanctions US imposed, much less come back from it within a few years. Apart from sacrificing some of mobile/honor/consumer global footprint, HW's telco/ICT still has global market share except in a few countries US is pressing hard to get HW ban. Even then I wonder for how long/durable, half the reason countries including FVEY conceded to banning HW (after fairly prolonged negotiation/hesitation) was because US made decision for them via sanctions that made HW's ability to build gear/honor long term contract uncertain. While no US partners going to reverse position to piss off US, but they may just take sweet time/find excuses not to stripout./replace HW gear scheduled for next few years. Would not be surprised if they start asking for exemptions now that HW increasingly able to service gear without US inputs. Even US still has 20k+ pieces of HW + ZTE kit in domestic networks.

> government money often even less

Not if you get shot for fraud. If that’s the case, government money can get you very far indeed.