Frank: Brad Reese writes for, and the article was on the Cisco Subnet of Network World. Reese only writes (often acerbically) about Cisco and Cisco relevant topics. The oft noted (not here) vitriol is part of a love-hate relationship as Reese makes his living heading a company that does Cisco repairs and refurbishes and vends Cisco hardware with a warranty.
Reese actually here does a good job of giving, in precis, (as given in the IT section of) the cited Rand report (A New Direction for China's Defense Industry.) the primary raisons d'etre for the reorganisation and structure of the surging commercial IT and Telecom industries, viz:
1. To "Civilianise',(P.205 -note: I am using the original "dead tree" page numbers, not the reformatted PDF pagination)) through commercial , world wide ventures, including partnerships, supply of commercial, off the shelf, (COTS) technology (particularly Telecom) to the MILITARY as China's part of the worldwide "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA). (207) that This was given particular impetus, first theoretically, but than by direct observation of the astounding effectiveness of the U.S. C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), this, initially, at a time when some PLA troops were still doing morse code!
2. To create a strong domestic microelectronics design and fabrication industry so that the military would not lack for availability of ICs necessary in modern weapons and defense systems, also by competing and partnering in the cauldron of world markets.(219)
The companies were given grants and preferential funding, the fruits of research conducted in military labs and institutes(211, 225) (they were all military spin offs or affiliates anyway), and the availability of preferential citing and cheap labor. They had the advantage of technically adept(224), proudly nationalistic Chinese who were willing to work for lower remuneration for a domestic concern than for foreigners either in China or overseas, including They were charged with investing heavily in R&D(222) and building upon what they learned. to create strong domestically based IT industries.
This civilianisation and creation of a strong domestic IT sector (somewhat reminiscent of Japan's MITI model, albeit with dominent "feed the military" overtones)(205), was a reversal from the previous Soviet inspired model of "Steal, Acquire, Reverse Engineer, and Produce". Strongest early successes were in the COTS mode (207) and led to the acquisition of routers, switchgear, and fibre optic technology modernising PLA communications.(208) The sector, for all its astounding commercial success, has become (as intended) a new "Defense-Industrial Paradigm" (211)
Reese, in his precis, uses the name Huawei seven times; he cites the other three tigers of the Telecom portion of the IT sector three times. The four tigers are" (Huawei, Zhongxing, Datang, and Julong). The reasons he concentrates on Huawei are two fold:
1. Huawei is successful and ascendant. (see my post,#32244, below), but of most importance:
2. Huawei was created with, and charged with, going head to head with Cisco (and Juniper) in the router sector.
The Report makes this clear and quotes a source thus:
"For the future Huawei wants to be the Cisco of the PRC but is also ambitious to become a Global Player" (219)
As far as the alleged omission (or diminution) of mention of ZTE in both the Reese piece and the Report, Frank, it has nothing to do with the fact that the report is 5 years old.
The proper name of the compny we acronymize as ZTE is Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Limited. Reese, following the style-book of the editor of the Report,has simply taken out the space between Zhong and Xing and removed the second cap so there is no "camel's hump", rendering it Zhongxing.
Reese therefore renders the company Zhongxing which we call ZTE thrice, as often as any save Huawei.
The Report renders Zhongxing numerous times, on the same order of magnitude as Huawei, either directly by name (e.g. Pp: 213, 217, 221, 222), or by generic inclusion, and also Zhongxing has its own sub-chapterlet the same as does Huawei (as do fellow tigers Dalang and Julong) They just don't call it ZTE |
