I think there are a number of problems here:

- Trust is at an all-time low, so I think that even if this move made a lot of sense most people would not extend much goodwill to the government.

- There aren't stats available to the public -- just how many exploits are due to for-real backdoors vs. bad code. Of the "bad code" exploits, how many can really be attributed to the lax standards of a 3rd party country?

- Also, basically no one makes router hardware in the US and I'm not sure who plans on starting.

- The article states "including IoT devices like webcams and routers." -- how much of this problem is an IOT problem and not a router problem?

I'm not holding these up as facts. ie, I'm not implying-by-raising-the-question that IOT is a bigger part of the problem and routers are a distraction. I'm saying I wish we had hard numbers. If IOT is 1% of the problem that's a different calculation than if IOT is 90% of the problem.

> Also, basically no one makes router hardware in the US

I find that surprising! What was the CHIPS Act for? I agree with your remaining statements.