China e-Lobby

No Punishment:

China e-Lobby has a piece that points to an interesting fact: Huawei Technologies is a "principle supplier of Iraqi communications hardware for the current cellular contract."

Why is that interesting? Because Huawei has experience working with Iraq. They are "the Communist Chinese firm that integrated Saddam’s air defenses in 2001."

Good job, too. It's almost enough to make you wonder if they were on our payroll the whole time; indeed, I expect the topic to pop up any time on DU.

Setting aside conspiracy theorizing, however, I do wonder about this business. There was a great deal of moaning and whining about the CPA keeping French companies out of Iraq; but Communist Chinese ones, ones that actually participated in Saddam's defenses, are OK? Or has Iraq's interim government decided that they care more about integration into the world economy than they do about punishing bad actors? That would be an understandable sentiment, though I am always sad to see anyone doing trade with China's defense industry.

Speaking of which, here is a Xinhua piece on US-Japanese military integration. The Chinese have been feeling a bit sour since... well since about 1930, where Japan is concerned. But they've been especially irritable since this joint US/Japan statement on Taiwan. There are attempts to play it down, but there's no doubt that it's big news. I expect to see, in the next year or two, a Japanese amendment removing the pacifist language from their Constitution.