As noted a few weeks ago, the trade War has turned into a shambles. (ED: “turned into”?)
As we know the US loves controlling the narrative when things start to turn sour and all attention has been turned to Huawei and just how much of a state agency it actually is and how they made their money. There isn’t a single thing in any of this that isn’t incredibly fascinating to me and I hope you share my fascination because we’re at a critical point in the world’s journey and our actions today are guaranteed to echo through history.
First thing’s first. The Wall Street Journal ran one of the best pieces of investigative journalism it’s been my privilege to read. It’s about the hottest topic of the day, being Huawei simply making a life for themselves through theft of tech.
This article which deserves endless clicks is located here. Read it, please. I’ll wait.
A wonderful little tale of how a tiny company started at the bottom could build itself into the second largest smartphone company in the world and THE name in 5G tech so quickly, leapfrogging competitors that had light years of distance ahead of the little-known Chinese startup.
According to this piece, the little known Chinese startup simply ripped off a router from Cisco (the light years ahead company at the time) including the bugs and all. Then they just kept doing that. Then they managed to patent most of the vital tech for critically important 5G networks.
Easy.
Openness is important….
Courtesy Twitter
Now read this research paper put in front of me by dear friend Paul Colgan which goes through an in depth review of who actually owns Huawei.
Spoiler alert- it’s PROBABLY not the staff
Extra spoiler “Huawei may be effectively deemed state owned”
Good times…
Source above
Now read this little tweet feed from @ElliotZaagman on his recent trip to a Huawei factory. Nothing amazing in this one it’s just really interesting and it seemed like a nice trip, just the part on tweet number 10/16 regarding robotics & automation I liked: 5 years ago each factory line had 86 people on them, now they only have 17 each. That’s something to think about. people need to eat in the middle kingdom and they need jobs. Pork is getting expensive and robots are taking over the manufacturing jobs. No chance of protests though, right?
LINK HERE
Our own Jack Kouzi runs webinars on the rise of the machines and they’re really worth a listen. Any interest please let me know..
In the interest of fairness the founder & CEO of Huawei Ren Zhengfei (who apparently only owns ~2% of the company according to the above) gave this excellent interview with Bloomberg yesterday and it could best be described as a “classic clapback”
LINK HERE
Quote for the win:
“I will ignore Trump then with whom can he negotiate? If he calls me I may not answer. But he doesn’t even have my number…”
That sound is the microphone hitting the floor and Ren strolling off stage.
Source above
Conclusion: We are not only standing at the crossroads of history with regards to the path our planet takes with regards to technology, control of technology and all the ramifications regarding freedom of movement and information but we are also missing the point.
We’re all so caught up arguing about who owns the tech behind our (and the UK & the USA and everyone’s) 5G network. Maybe handing the keys over to your whole country’s tech infrastructure to a privately owned company isn’t such a great way to ensure your sovereignty going forward?
Let’s deal with one battle at a time and for now a light being shone on some of the darker secrets in the world of tech is a pretty good start.
Finally, and speaking of shining lights on dark secrets…
This in the wake of Eurovision is brilliant. The UK was thrashed (again) and this absolute genius Kit Lovelace has pieced together the reason being that the English keep entering songs in major key. 15 of the last 20 winners have been songs in minor keys. The UK keeps putting in major key songs and it’s doing them no favours on the continent.
LINK HERE
It’s some incredible work and as a part time music fan I love this analysis of music to its most basic elements. Apparently key changes are out too. KEY CHANGES! The last time a song with a key change won Eurovision was 2007!
Play the odds, UK. (Granted they have bigger problems right now but still…priorities)
All the best,
James Whelan
Level 2, 98 Riley Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
t +1300 220 360 | m +61 407 958 036 | www.vfsgroup.com.au/
**Title image courtesy @StockCats
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