Mitt Romney's communist connection

Most Americans probably are not intimately familiar with Huawei (pronounced "Wa-way," as if Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live fame were asked to pronounce the name). The company's founder, Ren Zhengfei is a former officer of the People's Liberation Army.

Tough to know what to make of that. When it comes to speaking with the press, Ren is a regular Greta Garbo. A mini-profile Forbes ran three years ago noted that many of Huawei's major customers are state-run businesses in China. And while Ren owns 1 percent of the company, the rest belongs to an unidentified "union."

Go figure.

Meanwhile, Ren has gone about building Huawei into a success story disregarding the usual corporate niceties. In 2000--three years before the WMD craze got us all nutso about taking out Saddam--the CIA accused Huawei of secretly selling a communications system to Iraq. In the final report of the Iraq Survey Group, Huawei and two other Chinese companies were singled out for carrying out "extensive work in and around Baghdad"--mainly telecommunication switches and the installation of fiber-optic cable.

Then in 2003, Cisco socked Huawei with a patent infringement lawsuit. Cisco claimed Huawei ripped off its intellectual property to make a lineup of routers and switches. Huawei denied the allegations though in the end caved.

But if at all possible, business doesn't let politics intrude. So it is that Friday we learned that Bain Capital is paying $2.2 billion to acquire 3Com. Part of the deal involves China's Huawei Technologies, which will acquire a minority stake in 3Com.

And, oh, by the way, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor running for the Republican presidential nomination--he headed Bain Capital for 14 years.

Six degrees of separation. In this case only 2--but who's counting.

I wonder whether a future President Romney might have commented on Huawei figuring in a major U.S. tech acquisition. I'm darned sure candidate Romney has since turned off his cell phone for an early start to the weekend.

[crimsontide00]

Absurd

Suggesting that Romney's previous involvement with a company
that made the decision to partner with a sketchy Chinese firm
years after he left is going to be a political liability is a massive
stretch. If this is all that is required to have a "communist
connection", then the fact the laptop I read the article on was made
in China is likely a "communist connection" by the author's
standards as well.

[Fredward42]

So wait...

You're saying that Romney is responsible for the actions of a company that he left nearly 10 years ago? And just because that company has since chosen to enter into a decidedly non-political business deal with someone who was formerly a member of the Chinese military (as I recall, service was mandatory for many young men) you feel entitled to single out and smear a specific candidate? Yes? Okay, just clarifying. But it does seem awfully McCarthyistic to me...

[stuxstu]

More Yellow Journalism on CNET

Well here we go again... More yellow journalism on cnet. The link is for the uniformed and the "journalist" who wrote this garbage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Journalism

BTW - You didn't mention he is a Mormon and that they used to support polygamy. So that must mean he has ?extra? wives hidden somewhere.

Stu

[hardedge]

Charley, What the Hell Are You Doing?

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan?s foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts. It's in a book by Paul Kengor, a political science professor at Grove City College, called, ?The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. There are no degrees of separation.

So why are you picking on Romney?

-O'B.

[Solaris_User]

Yeah

Fry them both.

[Tirleton]

Time Management

Charles, don't you have something better to do with your time? Oh, and by the way, Ronald Reagan was a communist too. Don't you remember, he visited the USSR.

[Stating]

Bill Clinton Lobbied For Dubai Ports World

If the CNET author wants to tie Romney to the Chinese then he should also tie Hillary Clinton to Dubai. After all, Bill Clinton lobbied for Dubai to take over major U.S. ports, and as Ms. Clinton told us just this week, she and Bill started a dialog 36 years ago and they are still talking. They talk about everything. So they must have talked about Dubai infiltrating the U.S. and how that was a good thing.

[bigwiki]

Everytime a Chinese company invests in US

US media complains and makes it a big deal. Many factories in China are partially own by Americans and other foreign companies. The Chinese never complains. Foreign investment is good. That's mean money are flowing in to your country.

[Rational Thinker]

You have to be kidding?

You have to kidding with this one? This is as far a stretch to mislabel and malign Romney's candidacy, or was it a rouse to get people to sign into CNet? Mitt Romney has not been involved, economically or otherwise, in the management of Bain for years. His holdings are known by all reputable sources to be held in a Blind Trust. Why not focus on truth and leave the innuendo and false reporting to the DNC?

[ScottKin]

CNET Features...

...should include the "report as offensive" message option for not only the comments but for the article itself.

Charlie: Do you see that little red light out of the corner of your eye? It's your career expiration warning...and it just clicked into OVERTIME!

But why should we expect anything less from CNET; I mean, they're not a REAL political news outlet with REAL political journalists...right? Did Charlie come from the same "school of journalistic integrity" that brought us Dan Rather?

[donsl777--2008]

Shocked and Saddened

Look, I'm a regular reader of CNET, but wow, that article just lowered my opinion of CNET by a large measure.

I realize that CNET isn't a mainstream publication, and that it has to be "edgy" from time to time in order to generate buzz. But a hacking, slander-filled, and downright juvenile article will turn readers away.

Like me, for instance.

Stick to technology, CNET. You've proven your incompetence for reporting on politics and business.

Sincerely,
Don, a now former CNET reader

[aaydogan]

Romney: Another Republican Hack Who Kisses Chinese A**

Charles, thanks for your article. The Republicans are so wrapped
up in there apecial interest deals selling out this country for the
sake of oil companies, military suppliers and other big campaign
contributors that this seems to be old news. I know, Romney will
probably pull the same crap his dad did: he'll claim he was
"brainwashed." I lived through a Romney administration in
Michigan. His dad was loser and so is he. Commy or not.

[No Man]

Worst article ever

I have sat idly by while reader after reader complained about CNET's journalism. Sometimes they had a point. Sometimes not. But this is by far the WORST article I have ever viewed on CNET's site. Charles Cooper has just made a mockery of what is ordinarily a good source of technology news. In my opinion, CNET should tell him to take his trash to Blogger or some other amateur site and never sponsor his material again. Inexcusable.

[meh130]

Since the author failed to provide them, here are the facts

Huawei is in the telecommunications business, and huge worldwide, especially in emerging markets. If you look at their product portfolio, it is mostly core telephony and core mobile telephony related.

Huawei, as a non-U.S. company, does business in countries on the U.S. blacklist, and therefore U.S. companies cannot do business in. As I recall, European construction companies did business in Iraq. European energy companies do business in Iran today.

Huawei had a joint venture with 3com (Huawei-3com) from 2003-2007. This is where the Chinese involvement in 3com started. While 3com bought out Huawei's share, but 3com continues to be a reseller of Huawei's technology.

Tech companies generally make equity investments in smaller companies and start-ups. Huawei is no exception, with its investment subsidiary, Huawei Tech Investment Company, Ltd.

Private equity firms buy companies and take them private.

Given Huawei's past joint venture with 3com, and 3com's current reseller agreement with Huawei, it is not surprising for Huawei to be involved in the deal to take 3com private.

Romney left Bain Capital in early 1999, almost nine years ago.

[Newspeak finder]

The USA also helped Saddam Hussein

Donald Rumsfeld actually helped Saddam Hussein with bio and
chemical precursors that he used to terrorise his own people and
increased credit to him after he gassed the Kurds at Halebja.

See
http://globalpolicy.igc.org/security/issues/iraq/history/husseini
ndex.htm

Is that 1 or 0 degrees of separation from aiding terrorism?

[chrispark11]

That was a weak, weak, WEAK attempt.

Mitt's communist connection? Yeah, best of bud's I'm sure, probably golf together, exchange Christmas cards too. Angry liberals, never cease to amaze me.

[K.P.C.]

Too F@%#ing funny! :)

And you hear people wondering why bloggers aren't considered
journalists?


Look in the mirror Coop ;)

[K.P.C.]

btw . . .

When was the last time you bought something that was "Made in
China" . . . ?
Today?
0 degrees of seperation!
I see a communist there!

[K.P.C.]

Irony of ironies . . .

Sorry to chime in again but my next click was to another of
Coops stories and I couldn't help actually spitting out my coffee!

Coops words:
"That was so unfair of him to use facts in an argument where it
was clear that I was on the side of the angels."

Coop . . . you really need to reflect more on your Uncle Harold.

btw - that was a better thought out and more well written article
than this "Comrade Romney" piece.
http://www.news.com/Giving-the-nuke-option-a-fair-
shake/2010-11392_3-6210528.html?tag=nefd.pulse

And for the sake of disclosure I'm not chiming in on this article
because Romney is my man . . . I don't know who I'm going to
vote for yet but Mitt isn't even in my top 5 list of possibles.

I just thought you did him a disservice with that article.

If you'd have claimed Hillary's "Fascist Connection" because her
family owned stock in VW prior to WW2 (I made that up) I'd have
called you out on that too.

take care ;)

[geotopia]

weawy weawy weak (as Gilda would say)

Romney has run a blind portfolio since running for governor and
hasn't held an executive post at Bain since he assumed the role
as head of the olympic games in 2000. To attribute the Bain/
Huawei (which, by the way is pronounced just like it is spelled -
"hwaway") acquisition of 3COM to communist ties with Romney
is such a far stretch that there's no way to look at it other than
contrived hyperbole and mudslinging. It's laughable, but I guess
if this is the best dirt someone can come up with, it bespeaks
very well of the candidate.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Mitt isn't a commie, he's a child torturer!

After my parents mistakenly thought these were genuine reform schools:

http://reason.com/news/show/121088.html

I was tortured on a daily basis. Mitt has a commie connection? No! He is a die-hard child torturer and these is no stretch here. I WAS THERE FOR TWO YEARS BEATEN AND STARVED AND MOLESTED EVERYDAY!

I agree with the intention of this article to wreck this Satanic man's political advances.

[Solaris_User]

This is true

Mitt Romney's communist connection
He's talking about Straight Inc. and yes this crap is still going on, and its absolutely disgusting.