Imagine all the cellphones

The holiday season can be stressful enough. But combine it with fears of high-tech/telecom domination by Microsoft Corp. or Google Inc. or Apple Inc. or the parent companies of the No. 1 and No. 2 mobile phone carriers-AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.-and it can all get overwhelming.
The good news, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report, is Techno Darth Vader is none of the above. The bad news, according to the same report, is the U.S. high-tech sector is more likely than not to be usurped by someone other than one of our own: China, of course, the nation of more than 1.3 billion people and the mother of all wireless markets.
“Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies,” stated the commission in a summary of its report. This too: “China no longer seeks to attain parity with Western science and technology, but instead is working to surpass the technological prowess of the West.”
The commission, created by Congress in 2000 to analyze national security implications of U.S.-Sino economic ties, said China is lollygagging in its pursuit of a market economy as the communist government subsidizes key industry sectors, including telecommunications. Moreover, the commission accuses China of leveraging more sophisticated Western technologies to develop home-grown ones in order to avoid reliance on imports, failing to enforce protection of intellectual property rights, integrating cyber attacks into its military doctrine, suppressing free speech, manipulating its currency and so on.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the commission is biased and ignores the country’s political, economic and social gains.
Carolyn Bartholomew, chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, conceded China cannot be blamed for everything.
“Unfortunately, some U.S. technology companies have cooperated with and contributed to the Chinese government’s censorship and propaganda systems by supplying hardware and software,” said Bartholomew. “They seem to have taken to heart Lennon’s remark that, ‘living is easy with eyes closed.’ Of course, that would be John Lennon, not Vladimir.”
With that, Bartholomew and her commission colleagues have about as good a chance at getting prime seats at the 2008 Summer Olympics as the host country has in rolling out TD-SCDMA-based mobile services before the games begin.