The problem isn't trustworthiness, we know very well what's going on here, "privacy not included", the issue is that if another nation that's not friendly to you controls huge swathes of your infrastructure, they could use that access to cripple you should a "disagreement" occur.
With the kind of infrastructure that holds Chinese technology in the west, they could shut down entire power grids, bring roads to a stand still, shut down entire countries worth of networking, cellular networks and worse. This is leaving out the surveillance and data collection potential as it's not the topic at hand.
To be clear, my issue isn't with China specifically, but as a westerner, they're not a friendly nation (to mine).
The same of course applies the other way around, and I can imagine a scenario of other citizens sitting in their respective nation having this same conversation about western technology.
As an european, the US doesn't appear to be very friendly to me, or rather, their friendliness is conditional on the EU acting like a vassal state (or vassal federation). The current US administration doesn't even pretend like that's not the case, but past administrations acted like this as well.
China seems very much like a more straightforward and predictable trading partner.
Trade isn't really the concern I'm implying here. US isn't likely to initiate a "special military operation" without our (European's) borders, but China could certainly get ideas from a more local aggressor.
Whether or not that's likely is another story, but it's possibly a non-zero chance and handing over control of critical infrastructure should be a concern.
With the kind of infrastructure that holds Chinese technology in the west, they could shut down entire power grids, bring roads to a stand still, shut down entire countries worth of networking, cellular networks and worse. This is leaving out the surveillance and data collection potential as it's not the topic at hand.
To be clear, my issue isn't with China specifically, but as a westerner, they're not a friendly nation (to mine).
The same of course applies the other way around, and I can imagine a scenario of other citizens sitting in their respective nation having this same conversation about western technology.