Will US tech cold war against China’s 5G split world?

According to Bloomberg Tuesday, German telecoms company Deutsche Telekom warned in an internal assessment that Europe would fall behind the US and China in the 5G race if governments ban Chinese equipment supplier Huawei over security fears. Removing Huawei from the list of suppliers of 5G networks would delay rollout of the technology by at least two years and cost Europe's telecom industry many billions of euros, Deutsche Telekom said.



As the US is launching a crackdown on Huawei and piling up pressure on foreign allies to ditch network services from the Chinese company, Germany and other European governments have been urged to block Huawei hardware from being used in 5G networks.



Worries are rising that the US campaign will lead to a split in the high-tech world, which might have a far-reaching impact on international relations.



During the Cold War, the world was divided into two camps. The delicate balance of power built on nuclear deterrence shrouded the world in great uncertainty. By excluding Huawei from the Western technological world, the US is waging a technology "cold war" against China, which eventually will also divide the world.



5G technology will play a key role in people's future life. It will affect all aspects of life. But imagine what the world would look like if there were two 5G worlds respectively led by China and the US: There would be arbitrary competition, with one attempting to elbow out the other in the international market.



China doesn't want to see such a worst-case scenario. Unfortunately, the US is politicizing the technological development and in disregard of its allies' interests, it has pressured them to turn on Chinese tech companies.



China is not viewed as a strategic rival by the European countries. Given the gigantic commercial interests between China and the European countries in 5G cooperation and other fields, it's more in the interests of the European countries to maintain a sound relationship with China than following the US to technologically contain China.



The US is trying to strangle China's high-tech development by kidnapping its allies' interests in a technology cold war. This is impossible. The biggest difference between 5G technology and nuclear weapons is that the former is used to promote communication and integration while the latter is for deterrence.



Technological integration is the trend of the times. It not only helps promote communication among states and peoples, but also propels globalization and the improvement of international relations. The US efforts to divide 5G technology and contain China will hinder global development and are doomed to fail. At a time when the world turns increasingly multipolar, the US can no longer dominate international relations as arbitrarily as before.





