US restricts visas for folks working at Huawei and other Chinese tech makers – seemingly over China's human-rights abuses

The US government announced on Wednesday it will "restrict" the US visas of foreigners working for Huawei and certain other Chinese technology companies. And by restrict, it means it may not let some of them in at the border, it appears. “Today, the State Department is imposing visa restrictions on certain employees of …

[JJKing]

The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

It seems a bit hypocritical when Drumpf told Pres Poo Bear that building the camps was a good idea. I don't disagree with the action because china has been very aggressive and I am not happy with them poking their nose into so many countries around the world and then complaining bitterly when they are criticised by other countries openly saying that china has atrocious human rights. I think if people see what the chinese govt are really doing to the Uighurs then there might be a greater backlash against them.

The really strange thing is the Uighurs are Muslim and so far Saudi Arabia sided with china against having the Republic of China (Taiwan) admitted as an observer to a WHO conference. Next Iran is signing a deal with china to supply them with oil but have attached no conditions to treating the Uighurs as actual people. Forced sterilisation of Uighur women makes the chinese govt just as bad if not worse than the Nazi one. Uighur men are removed from the home and a chinese man is moved in to make sure the Uighur women and children do not practise their religion and the men also act as a proxy husband demanding the usual side benefits. I find this abhorrent and shows that the chinese govt does not deserve to be recognised as a civilised society.

To my knowledge no Muslim country has ever spoken out against the treatment of their fellow Muslims. Why is that and why is it left to the rest of the world to take up the Uighur's cause?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

OK, but I do get a distinct pot/kettle feeling when especially the US is using the Human Rights excuse after such fine humanitarian efforts as separating kids from their parents (and losing track of both parties) and police killing people of colour and getting away with it for years (basically unresolved, pervasive and, by the look of it, still actively supported overt racism.

Is what is happening in China wrong? Definitely. But the *US* imposing sanctions is hypocritical in the extreme. Then again, with a president who has now clocked over 20k lies told in office and killed up to 140k citizens because he is so inept I suspect he desperately needs the distraction.

[DS999]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

They may be fellow Muslims but they don't have anything cultural in common with them. There isn't really a 'Christian theocracy' equivalent to compare to but a good chunk of the right wing in the US wishes we were. They don't jump the defense of every oppressed Christian group around the world, at least if they aren't white.

[Potemkine!]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

To my knowledge no Muslim country has ever spoken out against the treatment of their fellow Muslims.

Indonesia claims it did. China's influence is strong, even stronger and stronger thanks to the 'we alone and fuck you all' attitude of the US. China fills the void.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

Turkey has been quite vociferous, to the extent that having a Turkish stamp in your passport might get you denied entry at the Chinese border. But yes, the kind of countries that have been accused of encouraging (or turning a blind eye to) terrorism in the name of "our Muslim brothers" have been strangely silent. Odd, that.

[crayon]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

"Turkey has been quite vociferous,"

Of course they have. A few years back, Malaysia arrested a bunch of Uighurs hailing from Xinjiang. They were holding genuine Turkish passports. The backstory is that Turkey had been encouraging them to travel to Malaysia, where they then issued them Turkish passports then ship them to Turkey and immediately confiscate those same passports, then give them basic training and push them over the border into Syria where they were ostensibly "Syrian" "rebel" fighters but were in fact terrorists. China with the help of Malaysia and other SE Asian countries (where a similar thing was also taking place) more or less put a stop to this Xinjiang-Turkey-Syria terrorist pipeline.

As for why Saudi Arabia haven't spoken up for the Uighurs - the Saudi's are not as hypocritical as the West, they themselves are still indiscriminately killing fellow Muslims in neighbouring Yemen, with weapons provided by the benevolent and human rights loving West.

[Kabukiwookie]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

 'we alone and fuck you all' attitude of the US.

That must be why there are some 900 US military bases around the world, they're actively involved in military operations and/or trying to topple democratically elected governments if they don't do what the US wants then.

That must also be why the last bill that proposed withdrawing troops from Afghanistan was shot down in a bi-parttisan majority.

You do have the words correct though, just not with the intention you wrote them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

In my opinion, I think a lot of it has to do with Saudi's influence on Muslim countries and other Muslims, which affects Iran to an extent. It has even got to a point where some Arab culture is now part of Islam, and trying to understand what is religion and what is Arab culture is difficult.

Again in my opinion, I think the entire Palestine/Israel issue is from the Arabs stirring the shit in the cauldron, otherwise few would care.

Saudi and Iran's desire to become the dominant, superior Muslim country, and their fierce competition to become such, means they are trying to export their influence on other Muslims.

[Yes Me]

Re: The chinese govt is a two faced bastard (to put it mildly).

Most governments are two-faced.

I don't believe that Israel ever sanctioned IBM for supplying the equipment that Nazi Germany used to tally the concentration camp victims. Guess what, they had 6 million moral incentives to do so, but one overwhelming economic incentive not to.

Also guess what, the USA mistakenly believes it has an economic motive to sabotage Huawei. How convenient that they could hide this behind a moral incentive.

That doesn't mean that I'm OK with the mistreatment of the Uighurs. It's awful. But let's not pretend that the US is whiter than the driven snow. We're talking about Trump and Pompeo, for heaven's sake.

[Kabukiwookie]

And by restrict, it means it may not let some of them in at the border, it appears.

Lucky bastards.

[major_paine]

Would you like to go large on your hypocrisy for 50p?

I agree with big Mike that China building these camps all over the country is just atrocious...

They should've done it in Cuba and they'd be off the hook.

[Kabukiwookie]

Re: Would you like to go large on your hypocrisy for 50p?

Those illegal detainees in the illegally occupied part of Cuba are just hardcore death metal fans.

They actually love hearing that 24/7.

[You aint sin me, roit]

Whitesnake not death metal...

It was whitesnake's Here I Go Again, played repeatedly as torture, that gave Brit detainee Aamer consolation during 13 years in Guantanamo without charge.

I found it quite touching to hear the (now old) man recite the lyrics. Intended as torture, overblown poodle rock provided inspiration.

[PhilipN]

Not saying it is right or wrong, and not saying it is correct or incorrect ..

Just saying, with the abandonment of reasoned debate emanating from the White House be a little more circumspect about news from anywhere now. Western media fell on and adopted with passion and gleefully repeated a damning report on treatment of Uighurs prepared by some guy sitting in Washington named Adrian Zenz. Look him up on Wikipedia and make up your own mind.

<Title repeated>

[Potemkine!]

On the principle, sounds good.

However, it sounds also very hypocrite, and not only because of the US getting out of the International Court of Justice because of its war crimes in Afghanistan and is not really a leader on human rights. Is there restriction for people of Saudi Arabia for instance, after Mister Bone Saw ordered the execution and dismemberment of a US resident?

[You aint sin me, roit]

Do Huawei employees go to the States?

I'd have thought it risky given that the US is actively trying to extradite an employee in Canada to face good ole US justice...

[TheInstigator]

Re: Do Huawei employees go to the States?

Unless you work for various government agencies, the company that you work for shouldn't have any bearing on whether or not you're allowed in a country.

[Anonymous Coward]

ESTA form

Have you, or has anyone from you family, friends, partners, business or otherwise, or any other person known to you, been in a possession of, or made use of, or had knowledge of existence of any Huawei devices or any other goods, services or otherwise, in any way related to Huawei? (YES/NO)

[TheInstigator]

Re: ESTA form

If that isn't yet on there, it would be very funny if they added this.

I can then imagine the Chinese equivalent.

Are you, or have you ever worked for x, y, z

[TheInstigator]

As other commentators have mentioned - hypocritical

“Today, the State Department is imposing visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights abuses globally,” Secretary of State Mikel Pompeo, said.

So does that mean the manufacturer of the chain link fences in a certain camp in Cuba can also be denied/detained if they tried t go into China, or would the US be up in arms at the detention of some of their country people?

[Anonymous Coward]

horrent treatment of Uyghurs

by Chinese who dare to seriously challenge the US supremacy - baaaaaad (cause it only started yesterday, you know, and as soon as the Uncle Sam found out about it - there - apply pressure to stop such horror). In theory, I would applaud the US though, regardless of motives, it's the results that count. Trouble is, based on past cases of how well sanctions work (not), the sanctions won't bring any positive results. Not to Uigur, that's for sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: horrent treatment of Uyghurs

Sanctions generally have the opposite effect of what is desired - they're generally just a temper tantrum in the absence of any power to make meaningful change (something must be done, and this is something mentality).

Invariably, they have zero impact on the decision makers (often the reverse, as they now have no motive to reduce their action) yet hurt the citizens of the country, who now have common cause against the enemy sanctioner.

[Man inna barrel]

The CCP scores a direct hit in the foot

I think the Chinese Communist Party are doing some serious foot shooting at present. I am still pretty sure that Huawei are not especially evil, because their headquarters are in China. I think there may be laws in China about Chinese companies being governed by whatever rules the CCP dreams up, and even a company with the stature of Huawei will have to bow to those rules, so this worries the security folks. But major companies based in so called liberal democracies are also subject to political influences, in exchange for a few billion quid.

I think it quite right though, that we stop buying cheap Chinese kit, because we do not like the politics of their government. This is just basic diplomacy, of the kind that does not need an army, or posh blokes shouting. Perhaps Huawei could relocate to Wolverhampton, then we can all get on with useful stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

Because Huawei are responsible for the Chinese governments actions.

Yeah right.