A case of tit-for-tat? You can hardly blame Chinese media for hitting out at the municipality of Chongqing’s decision to ‘buy American’. The purchase in question was Cisco networking equipment used to support the ‘Peaceful Chongqing’ surveillance system, which will employ 500,000 security cameras across an area of 400 square miles.
But as regular readers of WiC will be well aware, Chinese firm Huawei has run into problems trying to sell its own networking products in the US on grounds of national security. Hence the Global Times argues that the same principle should apply in China too. “Things are upside down here,” it noted in an editorial. Why should a foreign company, especially one “from a not so friendly country” be relied on to handle such a project?
The newspaper – frequently nationalistic in tone – went on: “The US has been teaching us lessons that there should be no neglect concerning national security. By this token, we should call for the Chongqing authorities to use domestic surveillance cameras only.”
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