Hunter Takes Cheap Shot at Romney
In August 2005 CNOOC, a Chinese company, dropped its $18.5 billion bid for Unocal. A concern over US national security by having a Chinese company purchase energy interests in the US caused lawmakers to consider blocking the deal which led to the response by CNOOC.
In the GOP debate on December 12, 2007, Duncan Hunter got creative with one of his allocated times to speak by criticizing Mitt Romney’s connection with Bain Capital and a transaction involving Huawei, another Chinese company, and 3com which Bain is trying to take private. One report indicates that Huawei is one of a group of investors and putting up $2.1 billion for a stake in 3com that according to the report would not allow the Chinese firm to ‘have legal sway’ over 3com. The following is an excerpt from the debate transcript.
HUNTER: So those are two very important things.
But one thing that’s extremely important that Governor Romney didn’t touch on is this. We also, in being a conservative, having a conservative leader, part of that means not sending technology to our adversaries, and that’s going to be the big threat of this next 15, 20 years.
Governor Romney’s corporation that he founded, the Bain Capital corporation…
WASHBURN: Thank you.
HUNTER: … has joined up with a Chinese corporation to buy an American defense contractor.
WASHBURN: Thank you.
HUNTER: I think that is a mistake, and that’s a defense contractor that did business with Saddam Hussein…
WASHBURN: Thank you, Congressman.
HUNTER: … and with the Taliban.
So that, I think, is a very important part of conservative leadership.
WASHBURN: Thank you, Congressman.
HUNTER: And thank you.
WASHBURN: We’re going to look at the last video.
‘Not sending technology to our adversaries’ is what Duncan Hunter raised as a concern before his political move to put Mitt Romney on the spot and an obvious campaign tactic to attack a competitor in the 2008 campaign. There are numerous reports on the net suggesting outrage about Romney, Bain Capital, 3com and Huawei. But if as Duncan Hunter says, that not sending technology to our adversaries is a real concern, singling out a private equity financing deal as a culprit is rather limp and strengthens the argument that it is almost entirely politically motivated and not justified.
First of all, a repeat of past announcements in the interest of full disclosure. This blog supports Mitt Romney for President. This blog also has no problem with Duncan Hunter outside of the subject of this post. If you are going to state not sending technology to our adversaries as an important issue, address the entire issue rather than singling out another candidate to attack in hopes of gaining political advantage in a campaign.
The United States government has often aided, supported or allied with others who at a particular time shared a common enemy. Only to have those relationships decay when the parties to such an alliance now found themselves in conflict as enemies. The US backed Osama Bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. There are many reports indicating a connection between the 911 terrorists and Saudi Arabia. What is this nation’s history with that country? Just to examples of relationships the wisdom of which is in question and was not included in Duncan Hunter’s concern expressed in Mitt Romney’s direction.
Huawei has connections with many American companies and others around the world. Here is an excerpt from Huawei’s website that lists some of the companies.
Huawei has formed numerous partnerships with leading companies, and cooperates with them on the foundation of our self-developed technologies. We work closely with leading multinationals such as TI, Motorola, IBM, Intel, Agere, ADI, Altera, SUN, Microsoft, Oracle and HP to improve the time to market of our products, and to incorporate the latest technologies and best management practices into our company.
Would it be reasonable to expect that technology is being shared between these companies and Huawei? With all the outsourcing and investment by American companies abroad is it equally reasonable to expect that technology is being shared with other countries that would also match Duncan Hunter’s stated concern?
Duncan Hunter’s remarks aimed at Mitt Romney in the December 12th debate were a cheap shot. If there is so much concern about any Bain Capital taking 3Com private US lawmakers are in no different a position than they were with the CNOOC/Unocal merger deal. As reports indicate, the 3com deal is not a merger. But even so, Congress can stop the transaction if there are national security or other concerns.