To address its own and country biggest weakness, Huawei must advance its chip manufacturing.

manqiangrexue said:

So I've only used playstore and chrome so I assume everything else ain't that important. Chrome can be replaced easily with Firefox if what you say is true that it cannot be blocked. I'm not a software engineer but it doesn't seem too hard to make a playstore, which is basically listing a bunch of apps you can install. It's access to the apps themselves that is important, not the playstore you go through.

If one can grey-zone side-load Google's stuff into a Huawei phone and there are easy mods to make Google apps unable to detect a Huawei device then Huawei can keep the global techie market that revels in what a Huawei premium phone can do and know how to keep the device running the way they want (or at least can get someone to do it).

If Huawei can legally side-load most of Google services into the phone OR they can come up with an easy-to-use domestic alternative to getting those apps working and basic functions performing, then Huawei can keep most of the global average Joe/ soccer mom market.

If neither can be done then Huawei phones are coming back home to become self-sufficient before they re-expand.

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Weaasel said:

China will be hurt, but not crippled. China will ultimately succeed and reshape its economy accordingly. It is still a HUGE market and will eventually become the world's largest market. China will certainly NOT forget, and probably also NOT forgive the United States any time soon. There is much bipartisanship on imposing an embargo on China. In the future, when the Americans seek to withdraw their self imposed restrictions on trade with China in reaction to the fact that China's demonstrated much high tech competency, China itself will make it a policy to continue the American embargo.

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tower9 said:

If China wants to fight back, it should take out the Iphone's license for Chinese apps. It'll destroy Iphone's Chinese business right away and significantly reduce most of it's Asian business.

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ZeEa5KPul said:

That would be screwing Chinese consumers who bought an iPhone. While one could argue (and I do) that they deserve it for buying an iPhone, there's a better way to go about it: halt further production of iPhones. Pull the license for future production of iPhones. That won't just hit Apple in China, that would inflict a wound at least as grave as what Huawei received.

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tower9 said:

That would push more of the supply chain out of China, and alarm other manufacturers in China. Just revoking Iphone access to Chinese apps will essentially crash their sales in China, which is one of their hugest markets.

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manqiangrexue said:

They can still use open source Android or use an OS that Huawei was constructing as a back-up I heard. The former would be easier but the loss of the Google Playstore could be an issue. I'm not 100% sure what that would cause; does loss of the playstore mean that no non-Chinese apps could be legally downloaded? If so, then Huawei could take a big hit to its international market but if Huawei just needs to come up with its own playstore to access those apps legally then it should be quite solvable.

This problem seems to be very limited in China so Huawei would still have the largest single market in the world so even if it must regroup there and put its exported phones on a hiatus, it is something that must be done anyway. China and Huawei will never be true superpowers unless they can guarantee a fully self-sufficient chain including all software and hardware. Relying on rival tech is a dead end and this problem was bound to occur at some point.

The first flight for all fledgling hawks is when they are pushed out of the tree by their parents or when a killer/natural disaster comes for them in their nest. The takeaway message here is that we are at last on the final stretch of the road to becoming at true technological superpower and this tech war is the push that got us moving in the right direction.

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manqiangrexue said:

I personally also think that China should take some big swipes at Apple. China earns about $8 per phone they put together. Cutting off Apple production cold turkey is going HURT badly, and that's in addition to banning all new Apple devices (whenever they start rolling out again) from Chinese apps. (I wouldn't ban current devices because that would hurt and anger a lot of Chinese people using Apple and then Apple would offer to buy their now useless phones back for cheap and then they would have these to help stem the sudden inability to make new phones.) I honestly never want to see another Apple product in China again and that was way before today.

But the CCP has chosen not to do this. I don't know the reason though I hope it's not (and I don't think it is) to salvage the relationship with the US. I won't criticize them because I believe they have more information than me in making this decision.

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Bob Smith said:

They even have cover. They can simply claim Apple is a national security threat due to alleged spying.

They're probably thinking the next Democratic president(Joe Biden) will be more dovish. If a presidency under Joe Biden continues this hawkish tone towards China, I'm pretty sure even Mcdonalds won't be safe in China.

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ZeEa5KPul said:

There's an argument to be made in favour of holding off until the results of 2020 come in. If Biden takes it then, although he shares what is now the general American aim of containing China, he might not be willing to toss US companies into the furnace to do it. He'll probably take the TPP/alliance-building route (which suits China just fine, it's what it has been dealing with for the past 30 years).

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