Recently, a senior executive of a global telecommunications company warned me that China had largely caught up to the West in terms of quality and reliability of its software and hardware, and its state-subsidized financing allowed Chinese companies to greatly undercut others on price. Everyone in the industry, he said, was tired of hearing from Westerners what a threat the Chinese government posed to data and infrastructure security through their companies. After all, it is widely believed that Western telecom companies collaborate with their governments, as well, he asserted. The executive laid out his challenge: what did the West have to offer the world on telecoms that China could not do at least as well and far cheaper, notwithstanding these security concerns?

I knew this particular executive was due for a transfer soon, but he did not yet know where, so I sensed an opportunity to make a rhetorical point. I asked him to embark on a thought experiment with me and imagine that he had two opportunities in front of him: he could either spend the next ten years as CEO of his company’s operations in the city of his choice in China or in the United States, and the only stipulation was that whatever destination he chose, he must bring his family.