If Huawei Technologies’ decision to contest a U.S. national security review rejecting its acquisition of patents from 3Leaf Systems was perplexing, its U-turn to accept it is a surprise. The company says it has changed its mind because of the controversy around its earlier decision to throw itself on the mercy of an executive ruling by President Barack Obama after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United State (CFIUS) had recommended the deal be unwound. We had thought that the company might have had some backing from Beijing for its extraordinary initial position, and earlier this week a commerce ministry spokesman called for Washington to make its national-security reviews more transparent. Maybe this was all just testing the waters of Sino-American relations and finding them a bit too choppy.
Update: A bit of backwash from state media, suggesting the U.S. has overreacted in this case.
Further update: Reports from London (here via the FT) say Huawei is offering to give London’s metro system a free mobile wireless system in time for the London Olympic Games in 2012, an ‘Olympic host to Olympic host’ gift that it is estimated would cost the company upwards of $80 million. The inevitable national security concerns about a Chinese company running such a network in London have already been raised, but we do wonder what might be said it they had proposed the gift for the Metro in Washington, D.C. instead.
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