In a previous blog post exploring the concept of Egoistic Altruism, it was outlined that humans are more valuable to us alive than dead due to the dynamic of a positive sum game the global economy is presently in. This is probably an extremely valid reason why tensions between the United States and China have escalated beyond fathomable control, yet both nations are, militarily speaking, quiet.
Ever since the dawn of the Trump administration in the United States there seems to be a long standing fascination with China in its entirety. Instead of providing a source for that statement, I’ll let the number of Trump+China memes speak for themselves. And this “fascination” is pretty much justified (economically, that is). China persists as the fastest growing economy, the technology sector is booming, and the young workforce is quite intellectual.
It is seemingly due to these reasons that there seems to exist a Trade War between the two prominent nations, which is taking place on a largely separate diplomatic track. Notably since early 2018, Trump has been placing an escalating series of tariffs on Chinese imports in order to force leaders to the bargaining table, with China retaliating with its own tariffs, and increased tension as various summits have fallen through. This is proving to be quite an issue for tech companies who have globalized their operations and are now looking for alternatives.
Just like a child between two bickering parents, the most recent victim of this cold war is the company Huawei Technologies. In many ways Huawei products prove to be the best of both worlds, Chinese hardware with US branded software like Android. Recently, the US government blacklisted the company citing unsaid security concerns.
Furthermore, companies like Google and Panasonic have responded to the same. Google has officially revoked Huawei’s licence to use their mobile operating system Android. It may seem now that Huawei has been led to the grave considering it no longer has an operating system. However, Huawei, and even Samsung for that matter, has been planning for such a contingency.
In an industry its never smart to start depending on one particular product, service or licence that may affect your entire product lineup. Which is why Samsung is trying to create its own services like Bixby in the intention of moving further from the android ecosystem. Huawei too, has been quietly working on its own backup operating system for its mobile devices. This OS is speculated to come to Huawei mobile devices late this year.
Regardless, this poses quite an issue for Huawei. What if soon Microsoft revokes its Windows licence for Huawei’s PC lineup. Huawei may not even be capable of creating separate operating systems for its varying product lineups.
This even raises certain concerns on how far these two nations are willing to go in order to “win.”
But Huawei Technologies, is like the second largest tech company in the world for consumer devices. They may have a few tricks or lines of code up their sleeves. Let’s see how the cards play out.
The Meta Thesis 