Paranoia reached new heights with news out that a US government committee has launched a full investigation into the potential security threat of Chinese telecom equipment companies operating in the United States.

The House permanent select committee on intelligence (HPSCI) said in a statement that a preliminary 10-month review of Huawei and other Chinese vendors “suggests that the threat to the supply chain constitutes a rising national security concern of the highest priority.”

Using the sort of ‘redneck’ rhetoric only previously found in Wikileaks dispatches, the Chairman of the committee and apparent master of diplomacy and Lone Ranger descendant, Mike Rogers, was quoted as saying, “the fact that our critical infrastructure could be used against us is of serious concern. We are looking at the overall infrastructure threat and Huawei happens to be the 800-pound gorilla in the room, but there are other companies that will be included in the investigation as well.”

Goodness me, next we’ll be hearing that Chinese companies have been stealing US technology and repackaging it as their own, but that’s hardly likely because there hasn’t been much new technology coming out of the USA of late. In an earlier time, Rogers would, no doubt, have been a rabid McCarthyist. His committee’s activities fly in the face of what the USA has espoused for centuries as the bastion of capitalism and free trade. He must be really sore that a once Communist state has out-capitalized the USA. One can only assume that the anti-Chinese lobbyists have been very active in Washington of late and that planting ‘security fears’ in the minds of the weak-willed will stave off the inevitable.

For those old enough to remember, similar ‘patriotic’ fervour was unleashed when the Japanese started making inroads into the US TV and electronics markets in the 60s, the Korean car makers in the 90s, and more lately, Indian systems integrators (or ‘body shops’ as the were affectionately referred) to and the invasion of Mexican farm labour. Those battles were all lost.

US manufacturers realized early that they could produce their goods in China at a much lower cost than in the USA and we can now see the result on the US economy, balance of payments and unemployment rates. Why isn’t Mr Rogers singling out those players who have profited handsomely from the ‘free trade’ policies of his own government?