Selling off the silver

 Selling off the silver.

 

The controversy over Hauawi the Chinese data firm who appear to be sufficiently ahead in their design of the 5G network, which is supposed to have all the bells and whistles and is significantly ahead of the American tech giants with whom it competes

The link with the Chinese government in their quasi capitalistic system which at times resembles the centralised planning of the USSR more than Silicon Valley and receives massive financial backup from government coffers, is known to have few scruples when it comes to pirating intellectual property.
The Chinese play to a different set of rules, or rather few rules and is one of the reasons they have closed the gap between themselves and the West in as little as 20 years.
On a geopolitical front they are competitors who's growing military power governed in no small part by having a population of over 2 billion from which, by dint of centralised control be turned into solder fodder in any war.
In this country we have been shown to happily relinquish strategic control to others so long as we don't have to invest ourselves in the nuts and bolts which protect our country if we are threatened.
So little of our industry is in the hands of British controlled companies and whilst, as a sop to the national psyche we are allowed to keep the name of the brand. Rolls Royce, Bentley, the Mini, within the car manufacturing industry or Tata's control of the steel making industry, the chemical giants of the past now owned by foreign firms, all these wind farms which blight our landscape are all manufactured in Europe, the nuclear industry of which we were once world leaders now we have the threat hanging over our head if the Japanese and the French don't accept our chilling generosity when it comes to the guaranteed returns with a gigantic hike in the cost per kilowatt  hour which will inevitably be passed on to us the consumer. What a litany of subordination to others who may or may not have our best interests at heart.  The control of virtually all our infrastructure is now in foreign hands and our grandfathers generation must be turning in their graves to see how their sons ran down the estate.
Hauawi is but the latest in a long line of questionable transference. It was revealing that whilst not only the USA, Germany, France and even little old Australia with its reliance on China to purchase its raw materials even they balked at the prospect of allowing a 'back door' into the data and the the information which is strategic to running the country. Only the British Secret Service thought there was no need to block Hauawi's incursion into the technology at the heart of our country. "We can manage the threat" said the boss's of MI5/6. Another example that it's easier to sell off another piece of the silver than to reassess the national need.