Update on IBM/Lenovo Deal

In today’s New York Times Rep. Manzullo says that in the future he hopes CFIUS will “take more account of economic security as well as military security.” I talked to his press secretary again this morning and he elaborated a little, telling me that Manzullo was concerned about making Lenovo the third largest computer maker in the world when China doesn’t play by the same economic rules that we do, manipulating its currency for example. This reminded me of a comment from the earlier IBM/Lenovo thread:

“Our government has laws on compliance, equal rights, minimum wages, minimum age to start working, environmental protection, intellectual property and patents to name a few. While other governments like China for example do not have similar laws but also practices other forms of policies, such as fixing their currency to the dollar and others, which in effect subsidizes work that is outsourced.”

Meanwhile, what do you all make of the way “economic security” is used here? To me, it takes on a more ominous quality when juxtaposed with national security. Usually we talk about economic security as an issue for individuals, but here it applies to the whole country.