“The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.” Lenin may have never said it. There is no doubt that some such selling did occur in the decades after his death. Soviet tractor plants – read tank plants – were all American-built. It was primarily American and German businesses that thrived on Soviet orders during Stalin’s brutal industrialization, which created the Soviet military-industrial complex.
It all pales before the reels of rope American companies have shipped to China. For years, we have witnessed an unprecedented transfer of technology to a giant country managed by enemies of the West – once passive, now aggressive. Enough rope to bind all American capitalists, if not to hang them: comrade Xi wants slaves, not corpses. Of course EU, UK and US companies have also been selling dangerous technology to smaller predators like Russia and Iran.
Bloomberg reports on one such company’s dealings with the dictator of a European country where both Russia and China have vital interests:
The government of Belarus shut down access to much of the internet during a crucial election this month by using equipment manufactured by a U.S. company to block people’s access to thousands of websites…
US actors are not allowed to sell equipment like that to Belarus:
In 2006, the U.S. government placed sanctions on the Belarusian government and prohibited U.S. companies from providing funds, goods or services “for the benefit” of Lukashenko or others engaged in “actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions”…
Apparently, Russia has not been sanctioned in the same way. A Russian company, Jet Infosystems, acquired Sandvine’s DPI equipment a few years ago and resold it to Belarus. Perhaps it’s all part of a grand plan to equip Russian and Belarusian regimes with American, rather than Chinese, DPI technology. You never know.