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Huawei Had a Deal To Give Washington Redskins Fans Free Wi-Fi, Until the Government Stepped In (wsj.com)
Two years after a congressional report labeled Huawei a national-security threat, the Chinese firm unexpectedly scored a big-name ally in Washington. It was the Redskins, the capital's National Football League franchise. Huawei reached an agreement in 2014 to beam Wi-Fi through the suites at the team's FedEx Field, in exchange for advertising in the stadium and during broadcasts. From a report: It was a marketing coup for a company hankering to beef up its meager U.S. business and boost its image inside the Beltway. But the deal didn't last long. A government adviser read about the partnership. He knew the FedEx Field suites were a frequent haunt for lawmakers and senior officials across many agencies. So he triggered an unofficial federal complaint to the Redskins, who quietly tore up the deal. That previously unreported backroom maneuver is an example of a yearslong effort by U.S. officials, often working outside formal channels, to blacklist the Chinese technology giant. Washington has since intensified the campaign and taken it mainstream, with Congress and federal agencies working this year to snuff out Huawei's small U.S. business and curtail its much bigger overseas ambition. Further reading: Huawei Exceeds 200 Million Smartphone Shipments, Setting Company Record.
An entirely independent commercial decision, in no way influenced by political or other government pressure. Blessings of the masses, blessing of the State....
I'm sure Best Buy didn't sell them because they didn't consider them commercial viable. Now why aren't they commercially viable? Perhaps because the government has marked them as unsafe and open to the Chinese government for eavesdropping.
I've no idea if Huawei is Chinese spyware; maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but the thought that they might be is going to scare consumers away and put off Best Buy from providing it.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
But with dictator government under TRUMP
It's truly beautiful how you have the freedom to post on US websites that you think the current US president is a dictator. I hope some day citizens of Russia and China may have the freedom to complain similarly about Xi and Putin but it probably won't happen until well after their lifetime office holding is over.
Knowing what the Redskins owner, Dan Snyder, and his efforts to extract every penny from fans, I doubt that there no strings attached to Wifi access. The Dan Snyder I know would have gotten Huawei to supply the Wifi for no cost to him and then charged fans for access. I can only assume that Snyder worked out a deal where he would profit on the access like selling the right to datamine/track each fan. That's the only way it would have been "free" for fans.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Are you seriously unaware of the series of laws that the Chinese have passed over the last 5 years that require Chinese (and foreign companies operating in China) to collaborate with Chinese intelligence?