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Several Western Govts. Ban Lenovo Equipment From Sensitive Networks
renai42 writes "If you've been in the IT industry for a while, you'll know that Lenovo's ThinkPad brand has a strong reputation with large organisations for quality, dating back to the brand's pre-2005 ownership by IBM. However, all that may be set to change with the news that the defence agencies of key Western governments such as Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have banned Lenovo gear from being used in sensitive areas, because of concerns that the Chinese vendor has been leaving back doors in its devices for the Chinese Government. No evidence has yet been presented to back the claims, but Lenovo remains locked out of sensitive areas of these governments. Is it fearmongering? Or is there some legitimate basis for the ban?"
"Made in the USA" does carry a specific legal meaning and is different than "Assembled in the USA"
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus03-complying-made-usa-standard
Unlike most US companies, The Chinese government owns the largest share (38%) of Lenovo's parent company Legend which owns the largest share of Lenovo (34%).
FYI it was the British and Australian defense and intelligence communities that discovered malicious modifications to Lenovo's circuitry. Just in case you actually believe that the US intelligence was proactive for once, it was the British intelligence findings that encouraged congress to react.
Operaration Aurora a few years back. Rackspace, Yahoo, Symantec, Google... all confirmed they were under Chinese attack. I'd say that's proof many companies confirming the accusation. Another one was Ghostnet the analysis came out of Cambridge.
Well there have been tons of examples of backdoors loaded into firmware then sold with hardware. The Actel/Microsemi ProASIC3 was found last year to have a backdoor in the chip. http://www.scribd.com/doc/95282643/Backdoors-Embedded-in-DoD-Microchips-From-China
This is a very heavily used chip that got into western weapon systems, western power control system....
I don't exactly work for a large organization, but we do have folks working all over the world so service and support is very important to us. We had been using Dell but switched to Lenovo for a year because we could get systems from them with less lead time. We couldn't switch back fast enough. We paid extra for 3 year onsite NBD warranties (vs return to depot warranties) but when we called Lenovo to get them to send someone out for a repair, it always turned into an argument about whether we were entitled to onsite service.
Dell has always had excellent service, over the past 10 years or so I can probably count the number of times they didn't have a hardware problem fixed the next business day on one hand. It also seemed like we had a higher incidence of problems with the Lenovo systems. We bought maybe 20 of them and of that 20 probably half had to have their system boards replaced because a USB connector snapped off.
And if the Nazis had dragged their feet a bit more, Norway would have been invaded by the British instead (like they occupied the Persian oil fields together with the Russians to make sure the Persians couldn't sell any oil to the Axis powers). Sometimes being neutral is simply not an option.
Seriously people, take a little time to hop on over to the US Treasury site and learn a little about US debt instruments. It isn't hard, they'll explain it all, and even sell them to you directly if you want some.
So, this is not a loan shark situation, where the US goes to China and says "Please give us some money!" and China says "Ok you can have money, and at some point, you don't know when, I'll come and collect and you don't know how much for." Rather the US auctions off securities, bonds, notes, etc, and China chooses to buy some. They are sold to the highest bidder, which in this case means the entity that bids the interest rate down the lowest.
Now some things to note about them:
1) They pay out in US dollars. They are not denoted on foreign currency, they are in US dollars, meaning they have value only if the dollar does, and their value is dependant on the dollar.
2) They pay out only after a given period. There is no provision to call in the money early. They have a defined cycle depending on what you buy. Some t-bills have a maturity date as short as a couple weeks, some bonds a maturity date as long as 30 years. They pay out the principal only when they mature, not before (bonds pay out interest every 6 months). The only way to get money early is to sell them to someone else who wants them, for a price that group is willing to pay.
3) They aren't physical things you have, they are just entries in a computer at the treasury. They are completely under the control of the US government and if you did something that allowed them to seize your assets, there is fuck all you could do to stop it.
So no, China can't come "through the courts with a small army of debt collectors." Their case would be dismissed in summary judgement and they'd be charged court costs. You can't sue the government to try and get them to pay out their treasury securities early as it is EXPLICITLY stated that they pay out only at a given time. You can't demand they pay you in another currency, as they are sold in US dollars. You can't act as though they took your money without you knowing as you had to go and bid on them.
Seriously, none of this is a big secret or complex. Go look it up. Go participate in it, if you like. Treasurydirect is the government's site for individuals to buy securities. You can participate in the auctions and buy government debt for yourself, if you wish. Just don't think you can then run down to the court house and demand the government pay you. The terms of your payment are explicit up front. If you don't like it, don't buy.