Think Tank Scholar Being Sued by Huawei

Here is more from Bloomberg:

Huawei Technologies Co. is suing critics in France who alleged it has ties to the Chinese state.

In an unprecedented move, the technology giant filed three defamation claims in Paris over comments made during television programs by a French researcher, a broadcast journalist and a telecommunications sector expert.

Valerie Niquet, a researcher at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research that specializes in China and Japan, is a regular guest on French radio and television. Huawei filed the lawsuit after her comments in two television programs in February in which she said the company had ties to the state.

Niquet was informed of the claims in September and then in November when the police reached out to her to confirm her comments, according to copies of the authorities’ emails seen by Bloomberg.

This is the first case that Think Tank Watch is aware of where a think tanker has been sued by a corporation for commentary.

A think tank teamed up with a scholar recently found that around 100 Huawei employees had education or work experience linked to Chinese military or intelligence agencies.

Last year, it was reported that Huawei paid the Brookings Institution to write favorable reports.

Meet the 28-Year-Old Think Tanker Frightening Amazon

Here is more from The Washington Post:

Amazon’s general counsel, David Zapolsky, had a lot on his mind last month when he and four members of his legal team visited the offices of New America, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington. The retail juggernaut was days from announcing its $13.8 billion purchase of Whole Foods, a deal that would not only roil the grocery industry but also trigger a government antitrust investigation into the strategies and practices of the “Everything Store.” And, as Zapolsky was no doubt aware, no organization had been more dogged in raising those concerns than New America — and, in particular, a 28-year-old law student named Lina Khan.

Earlier this year, the Yale Law Journal published a 24,000-word “note” by Khan titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.” The article laid out with remarkable clarity and sophistication why American antitrust law has evolved to the point that it is no longer equipped to deal with tech giants such as Amazon.com, which has made itself as essential to commerce in the 21st century as the railroads, telephone systems and computer hardware makers were in the 20th.

Here is Lina Lina Khan's biography from New America, where she is a Fellow in the Open Markets program.

Think Tank Watch should note that Amazon is a donor to New America, giving between $50,000 and $99,999 to the think tank in the 2016-2017 period.  Other tech giants also help fund New America, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.