Well, this is horrifying:

The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Just about all of our electronics is made in China these days. This has allowed the Chinese military unimaginable access not only to Western-designed technology, but to the manufacturing process. One result of that is that a *lot* of the hardware that has shipped from China has shipped with tiny little extra chips… chips that allow the Chinese government to spy on virtually everything. How far this is from allowing the Chinese government to take control of American systems, I don’t know, but since these chips allow other computer systems access, I have to imagine  that things aren’t too far from that potential.

As y’all are aware, I’m generally unthrilled with the notion of government over-regulation. But I’m starting to come around to the idea that maybe it’s a mistake to have vital electronics manufactured in an aggressive antagonistic foreign nation. We used to make earlier generations of such things here in the US; the reason we don’t anymore is of course the fact that it’s a lot cheaper to make them overseas. But with modern automation… perhaps that should be revisited. There’s no reason why such things can’t be made in the USA, and given the vital national security implications, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be.

Perhaps start by mandating that anything meant to be owned or operated by the federal government has to be manufactured where the federal government has complete oversight of the manufacturing and delivery process. Everything from the computers that control F-35 fighters, to the smart phones held by FBI agents. Since the government is always willing to pay Way Too Much for stuff, that should mean that companies should be willing to relocate their manufacturing back to the US to get a slice of those fat government contracts; and once the capability is back in the US, then selling at reduced cost to the likes of Amazon and Apple should be possible.

One can hope that perhaps there was some strategic genius behind Trumps trade war with China: instead of generic flailing, *perhaps* the purpose of it was to drive up the cost of doing business with Chinese manufacturing so that the motherboards would be made in the USA again. Perhaps.