Reneto Adams, the US, and Huawei
YOU must wonder what the motivation was in respect of the decision by the United States, through its outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, last week, to ban six members of the former Crime Management Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and their families from entering the United States.
US authorities cited extrajudicial killings by the unit, but these were the same men who were arrested, charged, and freed by the courts, so what’s the big deal? Reneto Adams retired long ago and is in his seventies; one member of the team has since died, another has become a preacher, at least one is still in the force, and I’m not sure where the others are.
It seems strange that when US police kill black men and women, in the face of hard video evidence in many cases, the reaction is not what it ought to be. The US must examine its human rights abuses first before it can judge others. All lives really matter.
That leads me to another brewing matter, technological in nature… of an ongoing push by the US, started by outgoing President Donald Trump, to tarnish the efforts and capabilities of service provider Huawei, which, among other things, offers its goodies to the Jamaican market, and several others globally.
The many moves that have been made to discredit Huawei cannot be counted. As recent as last month, the
State Department was in the process of lobbying countries in the Central American and Caribbean region to ban Huawei’s 5G technology. But why? Huawei is not even run by the Chinese Government. It was formed by one man 33 years ago, and is now successfully operated by individuals.
There are efforts to get the Jamaica Government to block Huawei from these shores, but I hope that the Holness Administration will push aside any kind of pressure, even if it seems that one high-ranking Jamaican official is working to toss the company aside.
This smacks of part of the Trump agenda saying it was robbed of the presidential election, when there is no evidence of that. Similarly, Huawei, the world’s top smartphone brand, is being accused of cybersecurity breaches that could allow China to spy on the US, when there is still no evidence of it. No security breach by the world’s largest information and communications technology provider has been reported anywhere, globally, while still boasting the best technology, and at the end of 2019 reported its annual revenue at just under US$123 billion, and an employment base of almost 200,000 people in 170 countries worldwide.
Sadly, this is a continuation of an economic warfare by the US and China, which will take the global community nowhere.