Let me be clear: I'm OBVIOUSLY not a fan of Chinese government owned entities.
I'm also ambivalent toward Chinese manufacturers as a whole, even while selling their products.
HOWEVER, I do not see a universal non-conditional ban without any nuance as the answer and I do not see all Chinese manufacturers as having the same level of a threat in our networks.
This is on the basis of ownership. Chinese state-owned entities are INTRINSICALLY a threat because of the nature of their government as a single party dictatorship, their authoritarian policies against free speech and other human rights, and their growing imperialism and intellectual property theft problems. This automatically makes any company owned and staffed by this government or the Communist Party of China suspect in intention. Even if the products can be proven to be trustworthy, the funds garnered from transactions with these companies more directly fund their abuses of power and their international ambitions.
Privately owned companies in China, however, should not be automatically grouped in the same category. I recognize that the government may follow their authoritarian instincts and force these companies to cooperate in cyber warfare, but I can envision proper policy crafting as a means to shape how privately owned enterprises can behave, even in China.
Rather than just a ban or kicking off trade wars in spite and short-sighted protectionism, why not regulate the nature of the companies we want doing business in the United States in the first place? We can easily bolster the FCC to have a cybersecurity regulatory function that can also ban the use of certain components in electronics (example: U.S. market cameras must exclude Hisilicon and Huawei components, making US manufacturing more necessary and giving Texas Instruments and other U.S. manufacturers a new lease on life) and ensure software and firmware hardening. Banning import of unregulated equipment not made to FCC standards would still definitely be productive for all parties.
In a more blanket economic move, why not require that a certain volume of products be produced domestically, like Toyota does with its vehicles to meet our standards (perhaps for different reasons here)? Also, if we want to be aggressive here, why not ensure that certain workers' conditions be met to discourage sweat shops? This will also force their costs ups and help domestic companies to be more competitive by nature. This ALSO discourages the overall outsourcing of manufacturing.
There are so many more solutions that we can implement as a whole to both even the playing field and improve our overall cyber security than just simply banning private manufacturers along with state-owned actors. Incentivizing privately owned manufacturers to do business the fair and safe way in the United States can only be beneficial to the market as a whole. It could potentially teach them to hold themselves up to higher standards, even within their own country of origin.
Edit: As an addendum to address the recently mentioned sanctions I would believe be fair, I believe that based on willingness to comply with new standards in the style I outline would be a fair way of scaling back their penalties as long as no further infractions on our moral outlines are performed.
Second chances can do wonders, as long as there is follow through with the change in direction.
Also, private companies in China never had an inkling that there would be consequences for working with the Chinese government in the first place. By creating regulations with consequences, we can hope to lead them to the right choice. Not saying that will necessarily happen, but at least the avenue of choice is there.
