On the one hand we have the US. Its security services demand that manufacturers put back doors in their communications products that will allow Security services - CIA, FBI, NSA, ... - to snoop at will. The US has not offered any proof that Huawei hardware is capable of any of the charges it is making.
On the other hand we have Huawei, which has developed new technologies that will improve communications and reduce cost, with zero evidence that their hardware is compromised.
Any surprise that countries capable of independent thought are rejecting the US claims?
10
I expect this point has been raised by many - but given that trump is for all intents and purposes a compulsive liar, and appears to he a self serving crook, why wouldn't our allies' first impulse be to disregard his claims? What trump says is more likely than not to be some sort of self serving lie. SAD... but he is what he is.
5
"a presidential order that would prevent American companies from supplying Huawei with components that it needs to build 5G networks. While Huawei would eventually make its own version of those components, such export restrictions could slow down the company’s 5G development, winning time for competitors to improve their own offerings."
And there you have it. The USA is technically behind China and China`s lead is increasing. ALL empires fall eg. the Roman , the British , the Spanish , the Austro-Hungarian , the Ottoman , the Hittite , Alexander`s , the Assyrian , various Chinese & Indian empires. The USA`s empire of 800+ foreign military bases & the US dollar as a global currency are all slipping as China moves to replace the failing US power centers. TPP was a way to slow the USA decline in the Pacific basin but the USA shot itself in the foot & with Russia`s help put the loser of the national vote in the WH.
4
The irony being, that China caught up economically over the past two decades by enriching Wallstreet investors and funding the war mongering military industrial complex.
As a naturalized American citizen I had worked for the United States government at a few federal agencies.
It was a deep conviction that the United States was an open, all inclusive country for technology transfer and free International trade.
It is my deep disappointment that the United Stares that I came to become a citizen and worked so hard for is no longer the country for liberty, freedom and love of all humanity any longer.
The lies, harassment and intimidation of the United States on other countries is contrary to the basic honesty and morality.
No wonder the United States is and has being going downhill
14
Maybe if US allies were treated like allies, we wouldn't be quick to distrust this the US with as much regard as the legitimate threat Huawei represents to the West. We have had enough. Everything about your presidency is a failure except for your support of Authoritarian Regimes, Dividing the US and the world and influencing a huge increase in hate crimes. To say - shame on you doesn't come close to being adequate. This is on you, Republicans... your corruption has no equal.
15
All this is is a play by trump to make more money for his friends . There is Zero evidence that huawei has put software or hardware in sold devices to spy . Like anything in the past 60 years , America will be left behind the rest of world because of greed and Corruption . Just look at our abysmal infrastructure and healthcare. America is doomed
6
What has struck me for some time is that another people, a people for whom the West had a racial intolerance, a people who were treated with extreme prejudice by the Japanese, this other people have developed with remarkable rapidity and however much this people wants to contribute to the well-being of others we are fearful and antagonistic.
We are acting with astonishing prejudice towards China, and I am terribly saddened. For me, the Chinese are my friends as are the British or Germans or Japanese... We need to stop treating the Chinese with prejudice.
9
Many commentators hit the nail on the head when they point up the decline of international trust in and respect of the US due to the Administration’s fecklessness. Here’s another nail...the lack of trust in the FAA in the investigation of the 737 Max 8 disasters shown when Ethiopia sent its black boxes to France....
16
This is exactly the kind of situation where cooperation among countries would be invaluable in detecting risks from new technology, which are real and significant.
But our antagonistic ambassador to Germany, as well as Pompeo, Pence, Bolton and especially Trump have little influence in western Europe anymore.
They have threatened to withhold intelligence sharing with European countries who utilize Huawei technology. But it might be useful to recall that it was the intelligence services of Europe back in 2015 that first spotted an unusual number of contacts between Trump officials and the Russian intelligence operatives who they were routinely monitoring.
Maybe Trump thinks there is too much intelligence sharing anyway, especially when his officials get caught in the net.
18
The Times misses the point: spying is not the issue, at least yet. If this were simply a contest between capitalist corporations in China vs. capitalist corporations in the U.S. and Europe, I would be neutral. But this is different. This is a contest between two different systems: totalitarian fascist China vs. democratic capitalism. Given that Trump has never met a thug or fascist he doesn't love (Kim, Bosonario, Duarte, etc.), the difference might seem insignificant. But in fact is is extremely important because the Chinese Communist Party is looking to dominate the world's high-tech, the world market, and promote its "model" of fascist government as a replacement for western capitalist democracies. The Chinese are selling the West the rope to hang itself with. Huawei may not be using it's tech to spy or control western telecoms right now but they are legally required to advance Chines state objectives and, as we know very well, the lawless Chinese regime uses its telecom tech to hack into Western companies and governments everyday. How much evidence of probable future behavior do we need? The Chinese aim to sell Europe and the world its Huawei 5G system which it will control, put Ericson and other European and U.S. 5G producers out of business, just as they've wiped out so many other Western tech companies, then dominate world telecom as we will have no alternative. Thus it's important to see this as a systemic contest between democracy and fascism, not just a tech issue.
17
The trump administration has made a mockery of American stability and dominance. China has gone far beyond what America ever thought was possible when that door was opened decades ago. It has become a level playing field and quite possibly one that China even excels especially with 5G. Resting on ones laurels while reaping profits from the Chinese economy is rounding the corner of displacing this country's dominance in the world. It has been a great run, but the Chinese economy is steamrolling even as we grasp at straws to stop it's fast pace. Pandora's box is only open half-way.
7
For most of the past half century America has always extolled the virtues of competition as providing the challenge and the impetus for further advancement, lowering of costs, improved services, and the need to perform well for the customers. trump and his minions now want to reverse the course and hide behind government sanctions, threats of retaliation, and outright lies and misrepresentations.
The lack of will to compete and innovate will accelerate the trend of the decline and fall of the American Empire.
The abandonment of the Constitution to satisfy the fragile ego of an incompetent president suggests to me that people who support this failure also support America hiding and giving up the leadership and the contest that the world's markets require suggests many Americans would rather cheat to win, than play better and harder to win.
9
WMD, Three little letters that should answer all your questions about why allies are not rushing to back us up on Huawei. Need more, treating NATO with scorn , withdrawing from the Paris accords, TPP and the Iranian nuclear deal, moving the embassy to Israel, taking Russia's word over international intelligence organizations, tariffs that make no sense, bullying replacing negotiations and the uneasy feeling all over the world that the president of the United States is unable or unwilling to tell the truth about all things great and small. The majority of Americans don't trust him, why should strangers.
10
Since 2007 I have worked for an American NEP (network equipment provider). We compete with Huawei in Asia-Pac, Latin America, Africa, Austral-Asia, and more recently in Europe, which shied away from Huawei deployments.
We simply cannot compete with them on price. The Chinese government subsidies to Huawei allows them to bid for contracts below our costs.The quality of their engineering has improved over the years, and they jumped into network technologies like optical Metro ethernet ahead of European and American NEPs.
Because the purpose of networks is to reliably connect "end points", service providers (SP's) tend to adopt a single vendor approach at all their network layers, as it just makes life easier. Since data traffic flows across multiple SP's, two "secure" networks may connect via a suspect 3rd SP network. For this technical reason Trump's policy will fail.
Huawei is everywhere and US data flows through it.
SP's "co-locate" their equipment at physical "cross connect" facilities. Inside them is a "master data bus" which all the equipment connects too. When something breaks, at some point an SP will bring in field engineers from the NEP. If that engineer sitting in an equipment cage for company X is a cyber-threat they can infiltrate other SP networks, or set up covert links to allow hacker housed at a remote location.
To borrow a hacker phrase, "game over"....
8
It is so very sad to see the United States try to base its global leadership on threats and bluster against the sames allies who once readily accepted US leadership, which was founded on logic, the principle of non-discrimination (MFN) and the other countries' full participation in decisions that would bind all the Western bloc and more broadly.
There is no precedent in economic history where a leading country remained a leader by suppressing economic advancement in emerging countries.
12
I can't speak for our allies, but I'm concerned about my fellow NYT commenters. So it's the Trump administration exhibiting suspicion of Huawei: do we have to automatically reject everything that comes out of this administration? For me it's a no-brainer: I do not want to see the Chinese building the next tier of our national communications and internet infrastructure.
Commenters are citing "lack of evidence". Do we want to wait until we have Huawei equipment embedded in our national 5G network, in all our phone chips, and in the AI who-knows-where before we find evidence of spyware? China is leading the world in spying on its citizens: can we possibly imagine that they're not planning on spying on us? Are U.S. manufacturers and software developers prepared to air gap 5G in their normal business operations once they realize the Chinese are monitoring everything they do?
And what about elections? In new international world order countries are interfering in each others' elections. I want the U.S.A. to keep ahead of the curve in cybersecurity in protecting all of our domestic infrastructure. As a bonus, we'll have to bring technology development and manufacturing back to our own shores. Is that so bad?
6
@Grace - "do we have to automatically reject everything that comes out of this administration?" Unless our administration at least occasional tells something like the truth, why would one not reject, or tend to suspect what they claim? And maybe some evidence might be called for, in the face of our shattered reputation. Liars and crooks.... but this time they are on the straight and narrow? RIGHT... sure.
4
Before Trump-Pence, the USA's ability to lead was well established. Since Trump-Pence, we viewed as untrustworthy. Therefore, the western world thoroughly disregards anything our administration claims as factual. . .and there is sound reason for those nations to do so.
16
Let's not forget that the only ones actually caught using the telecom networks for siphoning off phone calls and meta data was the US government and US telecom companies. Just saying.
14
As a nation, we will pay dearly for this four year hiatus from sanity. Our policy on 5G has been to do nothing proactive or innovative, just to malign the Chinese and undermine their growth. Let’s face it: 5G has been won by the Chinese and they will dominate this technology forever. Under this shortsighted fool of a president, “another one bites the dust.”
31
@Right. The US should make improving our competitiveness our first response to challenges, not attacking someone else. Coercing allies to fall in line with US policies they don't think are wise is a really bad tactic.
3
Well, good for Europe, if only because they aren't quivering before King Baby. If you type "Trump threatens" in Google, the autocorrect will pop out a very long list indeed. In various ways just recently, he threatens Germany, SNL, NBC, democrats, California, Cohen, republican senators, to refuse intelligence to allies, to revoke funding from projects, to refuse to accept election results, to have an army of followers wreak violence if he is removed, and on and on and on. Today commenters on another article are trembling in fear because Trump stands with bikers and threatens his political foes. If we let his threats unnerve us, he will own the world, a mentally ill narcissist without intelligence or knowledge will run the world with threats. And too many people let him drive them to fear, as if his threats own them already. We have resources and means. We'd better find some courage to call his bluffs. Past generations fought such as he, and we must, too.
21
@jb I googled "Trump threatens" WOW as bad as I thought it was it's worse. What does this say about those who blindly follow him?
5
The US spies on all of its 'allies' including Germany. Under President Obama, it is revealed that the CIA listens in on the calls of Angela Merkel, and now we're supposed to preach to them about security issues?
I am truly ashamed of our nation. It doesn't mean I'm going to buy a Huawei phone or that I trust China over any body else! Only Trump uses such innane logic.
Impeach. Now.
24
Pence and Pompeo should look into the mirror first to see what they have become before stepping into foreign soil to speak credibly to others. Adopting the bully style of their master as the American star wanes after 2016 election just won’t go anywhere.
It doesn’t even cut it with the American public!
21
America is trying to undermine scientific and technological advance in China, trying to undermine Chinese economic development. This has been years in building or since we understood how dramatic economic development in China was. This was why by 2011, Congress with the approval of President Obama banned the Chinese from taking part in International Space Station activities and programs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NASA
8
@Nancy
It's not as if that is a secret. It's quite obvious that a democratic, free nation would oppose the rise of a totalitarian, communist state. And it is not as if China doesn't practice the same sabotage and undercutting. China has practiced cyber attacks, provocatory conflict in the South China Sea, intellectual property theft, election rigging, illegal environmental practices and more. Here's one example, from this Times article, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/technology/china-micron-chips-theft.html" :
"Micron’s accusations focus on efforts by Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a state-backed chip maker, to build a $5.7 billion factory in China’s Fujian Province. Two years ago, Jinhua tapped UMC, a Taiwanese company, to help it develop technology for the factory. Instead of going through the lengthy steps required to design the technology, Micron said in its suit, UMC and Jinhua decided to steal it."
At this point, both sides are willing to do anything just short of war. so dirty tactics are unfortunately to be expected.
2
Trump is irrelevant to everyone except his mesmirized base. Thank God media attention is starting to give air time to Democratic contenders for the presidency. Every minute trump is off the air waves is a welcomed relief.
20
It's no surprise that even our former allies are not taking our advice. Our President has so insulted and broken faith with so many of our allies, all the while praising dictators and strongmen, that should we be not surprised that we have no credibility with old friends. Trump is reaping what he has sowed.
28
We are reaping what he sows. Little donnie just goes on lying etc as he has done since he first said dada, at least for now. His whole enterprise could still disintegrate.
And is Pompey a blockhead too. He sort of looks the part.
7
There are many difficulties for America in selling the idea of a ban on Huawei network technology, and high on the list is the feeling that what they're really trying to sell is alternative kit from Cisco - which is, of course, based on the US. Added to that, Cisco's own track record in resisting approaches from the NSA turns out to be very compromised.
There has been limited progress towards an open source Network Operating System and perhaps this would be the way to go - long term. But if this route were adopted, I suspect it would impose a significant delay to the progress towards a usable 5G network.
9
@Londoner Ask any Canadian, and they will tell you the dangers of getting tangled in China's web. In retaliation for a routine law enforcement matter (the Arrest of Meng Wanzhou) China has kidnapped and tortured two Canadian Citizens. This is not the first time China has done this to our citizens.
A Canadian Couple were arrested and detained for two years by China in retaliation for another routine law enforcement matter.
Canada has also been threatened and bullied by China to install Huawei equipment in our telecommunications infrastructure.
Not to mention the fact that Chinese economic policy has been engaged in wholesale IP theft technology transfer and hacking. Indeed you might say that the underpinnings of their whole economy has been stolen from the rest of the world.
It is also a well established fact that China DOES NOT operate according to Rule of Law and that they are governed by the whims of the autocratic Xi Jinping.
Given these facts, Canada (until this point) would much rather take our chances with the Americans than the Chinese.
Of course, I am fully aware of the damage Donald Trump has done to America's Brand. We all are. The difference is Donald Trump is not "President for Life", Xi Jinping is.
6
@Richard Gordon
I would not trust trump in any way shape or form, he has threatened to destroy our economy, considers Canada a national security threat and openly flaunts court decisions, both international courts and American courts.
I would support China over the US at this point in time. When America returns to democratic government I will reconsider.
5
@Warren Courtney
Trump is NOT America.
3
So, Penguin warned our allies. What allies? Any left? Even so, it is laughable that Penguin warns anyone about anything. How do you think his warning was received? As just so much static from the water boy.
17
The threats and intimidation by trump and his stooges are nothing but an attempt to force countries to use American 5G equipment.
It has absolutely nothing to do with Chinese spying.
The gangland threats and heavies wont work.
trump blew his cover when he cheated, insulted and tried to manipulate your former allies for nothing but commercial gain.
As vainglorious as a wall, is trump claiming he is a deal maker.
He wouldnt recognise a Chinese spy even if they were posing with him for a paid photograph at Mar El Smersh HQ.
20
The stunning incompetence of this administration just rolls along.
17
Some of these US politicians really must think that the world is completely stupid.
Until a few years ago the US told the world that they would not spy using network systems until Wikileaks proved that in fact CISCO system had a backdoor and that the NSA was using ist and had been doing so for years.
So US politics lied to the world and the world learned a lesson, never trust the US without proof of what they are saying.
These days the US government wants to tell the world yet another story, the story of the big bad data wolf called China which is supposed to use the same trick the US had used to spy on the world, using a backdoor in its router systems to copy data from the streams.
There is not a shred of evidence be the US for this allegation and yet, the US wants the rest of the world to take it by its word.
Cm'on guys, how stupid do you thinḱ the world is?
Put down some proof and we'll look at it.
But the administration of a president for whom lying is not just a second nature but his entire way of life needs to prove such allegation beyond any reasonabe doubt.
The US is trying to press the world into its own way of thinking while is has proven to be a liar that is working only and exclusively to its own advantage.
This is not about espionage, this is about US economic and political dominance over its allies.
28
What allies do we have? Saudi Arabia? Israel? Certainly not any nation in the EU. We’ve insulted all our former friends, and befriended our former enemies. Pompeo’s threats are more of the same from the orange bully in the White House.
16
@Ed Campbell, yes--and if this president were indeed working for a hostile power, he wouldn't have done much different from what he has. Taken an axe to our strength, driven away our allies, and poured intelligence and more into the laps of those who wish us ill.
3
@Ed Campbell
"What allies do we have? Saudi Arabia? Israel?"
In the case of Israel , the USA`s Mid East policies (via Congress & the WH) are controlled by the Israel Lobby. The American people did not vote to donate $133 billion of their money + another $38 billion committed or to prevent the rest of the world from sanctioning the brutal occupiers of Palestine via dozens of UN Security Council vetoes. The Congress & WH did.
4
This is a tough one. There cannot be any doubt that theft of tech and data is in Chinese interests. Then there is the constant lying by the USA administration. The better bet is that Trump will roll over on the Chinese trade deal and undercut anyone who sides with America. That will be politically bad for the leader that stands with Trump. Just like in America politicians need to win elections and being there beside Trump is a losing proposition.
4
The problem is one of trust. Trump has already demonstrated, repeatedly, that he is willing to inflate, manufacture, or overstate security issues in the context of trade negotiations. For instance, he justified his steel and aluminum tariffs imposed on Canada on the basis of unspecified "national security" concerns. That rationalization is, of course, preposterous; even American negotiators appeared to cringe as they repeated the White House lie. But the take home lesson for US allies is simple: Trump misstates intelligence to the very allies he has longstanding intelligence sharing agreements with in an effort to gain leverage in trade negotiations. So yeah, he might get a short-term "win", but America, ultimately, loses in the long term.
16
The main reason we are at a technical disadvantage to the Chinese has been how our government has become more and more an extension of the private big business sector. Which has meant relatively less funding for years, of government research into basic science and technology which has been the source of the majority of our technical excellence in past years. The business state of mind is looking how to make profit and not to research anything that doesn't yield an immediate or at least clearly foreseeable profit. This self-centered way of life is catching up to us and we will continue our downward course so long as profit-based companies control our government.
16
If Huawei has the better product, and this "administration" has nothing to show as proof that is actually a "threat" (other than being a commercial threat to us), we dig the hole of untrustworthiness even deeper.
Having pushed "allies" around, calling them names, spying on them, belittle foreign leaders in public, -in the case of Grennell, the American "ambassador" in Berlin, even calling for an overthrow of the newly elected German government a last year (!!!), is the stuff that leaves us very much isolated.
Even a Brexit scared GB prefers to look to the technological future, and refuses to be arm-twisted.
This is all compounded now by lies and false information spread by formerly impeccable world leaders like the FAA, and Boeing. Did we reign in on facebook, google, etc?
The world sees our hypocrisy: no oversight of data collecting monsters here - the opposite: fb even broadcasts live the massacre in NZ-, and we are the last to ground faulty planes...
This might very well be a watershed moment in history. China clearly takes the edge with 5G, while the US tries with the help of its "government" to hide deadly, defective software. While we are distracted by this daily onslaught of kabuki theater by the chief clown, the world advances and leaves us frolicking at believing we are "great again."
We have lost our most valuable currency: credibility.
26
Trump is still acting like a dishonest amateur and America is already paying for it overseas. This 'great' winner-takes-all economy still needs trade and a global economy to make it go, not bluster and made up numbers.
11
He was elected by dishonest amateurs. He represents his base. It’s dystopian.
Too bad that a decade or so ago, there was no Trump-like foreign leader to force the world to turn down American technology. The world would be a better place.
1
Ah, the good old US acting like the bully in a playground.
We've dealt with bullies before; it didn't end well for them.
Just my 2 pence worth.
9
No one knows what to believe of an administration that lies constantly.
Much of the world views the US as a major security threat. That was widely expressed by our allies when W was president. Today it is far worse with Trump's buffoonery, lies and threats to our allies.
17
It is a pity that the US has lost so much credibility. An administration preferring bullying and threats over communication, ambassadors publicly threatening the local government with dire consequences of non-compliance with orders from Washington, all of this does not foster a closely knit network of allies. Hence, the allies are estranged.
17
When you are looking at backbone telecom switching equipment these days, you are looking at computers where the software is typically going to be frequently and routinely updated from afar by the manufacturer, the telecom utility and whoever may be given a role in updates. Security concerns are there for ANY manufacturer of such equipment whether it operates out of China, Sweden or the good ole USA. To deal with the problem properly the specification of such equipment must consider the need for security oversight/protection from the very start. Rather than having a sole focus on China, I suggest focus on the generic technical problem giving rise to a generic specification which provides for security assurance.
14
@Charles
Exactly. How can anyone take trump's security warnings seriously when he calls Canada and Japan security threats?
3
This is what happens when the United States demonstrates itself to be completely unreliable to its allies. Allies aren't 'there' when you need 'em because they don't trust 'there' to be a trustworthy place.
48
@Sandy
Readers of this column commenting here show a deeper understanding of electronics, mobile network technology and international diplomacy than the entire elected Republican party combined. Not the average knowledge exhibited by Republicans, the total knowledge. It is a pleasure to read Americans making sense for a change.
Whether Huawei is controlled by the Chinese political apparatus to the extent that the company could and would spy on the communications of its customers is an open question. There is no evidence of this cited, and countries being pressured to abide by the US’s injunctions are clearly not persuaded of it. What is obvious is Trump’s manifest stupidity in yoking a potential national security issue, which if true should be non-negotiable, to a provision in a trade agreement, again showing that the President has no respect for American national security interests and, as amply demonstrated by past actions, no moral compass that cannot be skewed by his knee-jerk biases.
21
Please stop trying to strong arm us. If China has a better product then why not get it? You have killed, wounded, destroyed towns and countries around the world with little to show for it but more national wealth. How can we continue to believe you have other peoples' interests in your heart? It's America First.
49
I agree with this comment. In Europe our feeling vis-à-vis the USA deteriorates rapidly
4
Seems pretty obvious: we have no credibility.
37
This is a trade war that the government of the United States cannot win. The Chinese has accomplished much in technology while we lag behind. Threatening our allies with punitive measures will not help. The security threat argument doesn’t hold water.
11
That America should be trying to undermine the scientific-technological advance of China is completely unjustified, a fearful development blow to some 1.4 billion people simply because the Chinese are advancing in economic well-being to a level that makes them competitive with a Germany or Japan or even America.
China is a peaceful country and means to remain peaceful and means to develop economically, better the lives of all Chinese people and extend the advantages of Chinese development to other peoples.
America trying to undermine the development of China is distressing to me.
10
Politicians should have thought of this when President Bush approved the sale of Lucent technology to Alcatel. Today, there is no American company that makes 5G infrastructure. Sure, Qualcomm does at the hardware level, but nobody here makes base station controllers, MSCs and end-to-end systems. The U.S getting out of the 5G race was the best thing that happened to China. Huawei is technologically a lot more advanced than Alcatel, Ericsson, or Nokia - and most of the smart engineers who worked for Lucent have become disillusioned underpaid Professors in the meantime. Huawei's success is driven by market forces, and no amount of fear mongering can change that - unless the U.S offers the world a better technological alternative, which we are now totally incapable of, at the moment.
27
" Closest allies"? We dont have any allies any more whatsoever according to Trump, and for once he is right.
He has insulted them only to coddle to Putin and arabic sheiks, etc.
US first has now become US isolated.
The US Champion of free trade has become a tariff fanatic, as under developed countries used to be.
If Trump was the most inteligent man that he thinks he is, he should have enlisted as many countries as possible against the Chinese abuses which are real instead of this "going alone" , I will win all my "deals", I will make them beg for relief...
And when faillig, claiming "unfair, unfair, fake new, fake news like a child asserting, it's not me, the cat stole the sweets.
30
Why aren't there competitors? Cisco?
1
Well, I'm sure the Trump Administration was very certain to build up a solid bank of good will and credibility with other nations so it would be persuasive in its arguments. The crude and overbearing Ugly American approach is just so compelling at times like this!
19
One-line summary: when asked to produce evidence, the US produces nothing.
29
The main obstacle hindering the United States from blocking Huawei is the fact that, when asked to provide evidence for their claims, the US has... nothing.
32
The main obstacle hindering the United States from blocking Huawei is the fact that, when asked to provide evidence for their claims, the US reveals that they have... nothing.
11
US concerns about Huawei participation in 5G may or may not have merit. But adverse reactions by foreign governments to the Trump administration initiative underscores an underlying message. Namely, unilateralism comes at a price. Public trash-talking of foreign leaders renders them tone deaf to appeals from Washington. "America first" appeals to a limited target audience in the US, but causes enduring enmity abroad. A president incapable of reflective thinking is unlikely to decode this nuanced message, much less modify counterproductive behaviors.
45
Maybe Trump and his administration will now start to realise that American already was great, due in part to the soft power it wielded and the support of its allies.
Trump has treated all the USA's long term allies with disdain and insulted many of them. So what would have been a simple phone call in the Regan / Bush / Clinton era's is now much more difficult?
Who knows what's going to happen the next time the US goes to war, and calls on its allies to contribute troops.
15
The MAGA administration currently at the helm is great at wielding the big stick; what they utterly lack is the ability to speak softly. For decades the USA has bullied and cajoled ally and enemy alike to promote our interests, but rarely, if ever, have we shown such a contempt for diplomatic politesse. Sound-bites and grandstanding work well for domestic rallies, for stirring up the base, for the artless spectacle of reality TV, but on the global stage it might benefit this administration to demonstrate a modicum of diplomacy and finesse. One can dream...
16
No nation can be considered the "leader" when it does not have willing followers. Nor can it be a leader in technology when the "leaders" deny the value of science and shrink investment in research. It is an inseparable link.
50
A good case study in how disfunction and incompetence in diplomacy harms US interests. We have not just lost our position as leader of the free world, other countries no longer trust us to keep our facts straight. The damage from this president, who was not even legitimately elected, will continue for the rest of our lives.
28
It did not start in 2016. It started in 2000 in Florida. Whatever criminality the Republicans engaged in before, even Iran contra and other massive crimes, was not as cancerous to our nation and world as the actions and consequences of those bullies forcing GWB into the White House.
Snowden reported about how the US exploited backdoors in US created software. The world is watching now while the US is waging a cyber-attack against Venezuela's electricity system.
It may not be long - and it may already be happening behind closed doors - that being made in the US is considered a bigger security risk than being made in China.
48
@Wim Roffel I agree with your general message, but on Venezuela it seems more likely that missteps and corruption in Venezuela is the cause of their problems. Just because Trump is so awful, don't assume all of his foreign adversaries are blameless.
1
I don't think Americans, especially the ones who lean conservative, yet grasp just how far the soft power of the U.S. has diminished just in the last couple years. The current administration has taken actions and employed rhetoric that people simply can't ignore or sit back and hope it's just a blip in the country's history. One of the major parties stands by every word and every action with little to no consequence and this gives our allies reason to question the viability of long-term partnership with the U.S. The U.S. can simply no longer be trusted as the world sees the kind of leadership it is capable of producing with a significant portion of the population supporting after every self inflicted crisis. Things will never go back to the way they were after this administration departs and Americans on both the right and left will have to grapple with the U.S. having a much softer voice and less influence. This is only the latest example with much more to come. Elections have consequences.
57
When companies can't compete on free market principles it's convenient to have their state hold guns to competitors' heads.
Once upon a time the British forced China, at gunpoint, to accept opium as payment for valuable goods. So China is accustomed to western habits. Problem is that the balance of power has changed.
60
The NSA infiltrated Huawei offices in 2010 looking for links to the PLA and Chinese government. This was exposed by Edward Snowden as Operation Shotgiant. The NSA found nothing. And yet, we went around the world without any real evidence, arm twisting allies into banning Huawei on mere suspicion and say-so. Our evidence was to cast aspersions at the Chinese government.
There are several troubling developments arising from this debacle.
First, we've completely underestimated how advanced and integral Huawei is to the 5G network. There is no commercially viable alternative to Huawei at this stage. Our allies are unable, unwilling, to ban Huawei.
Two, it is now obvious we are unable to compete with China on 5G. This reinforces the Chinese view that we are simply trying to contain them at any cost.
Three, we have been asleep at the wheel. How did we end up in a situation where the most advanced nation on earth doesn't have a competing system to rival Huawei's 5G? We can't whine about stolen technology if they are more advanced.
Four, this bully behavior violates decades of a rules based, global order we've advocated. Now that the genie is out of the bottle I don't know how we put it back. We've shown that we play dirty when it suits us. There will be long-term consequences to this.
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@Tell It Like It Is. The long term consequences are in front of our noses: after antagonizing allies of 70 years Trump thought that was intimidation enough and expected them to kow-tow to his “desires” the way the Republican Party has. Surprise! These sovereign nations can spit in our eye too, and just did — even if it may hurt them in the long run with respect to Huawei. I think it’s called, “what goes around, comes around.” Expect more of the same over the next 22 months. Putin is gleeful over the disruption and chaos Trump creates in the West.
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@Tell It Like It Is
A similar leapfrogging occurred during the conversion from analog telephone switches to digital switches.
Nortel beat the US manufacturers to the digital switch not because they had any more hardware expertise than the US. It was basically an accounting decision. US telephone companies were writing of their hardware over a 30 year period. At that point in the depreciation cycle it made no sense to replace hardware that worked until it was fully depreciated. The tax accountants ran the companies.
Nortel went ahead anyway and built the first digital telephone switches out of existing technology.
Are the US networks waiting until they have fully depreciated their 3g and 4G systems to start work on 5G? Are the tax accountants running the companies again?
Countries with little or no 3G or 4G can go straight to 5G - there is a market all over the world for 5G equipment. Many countries went from landlines only in cities to mobile all over the country.They could now skip several generations and go directly to 5G which could last them decades.
Two points , Firstly the British security chief's statements we need to focus on private hackers not state malfeasance has been shown dated by the Russian and North Korean , as well as Chinese, cyber attacks.
Secondly , unless Huawei shares its source code with national intelligence chiefs there is no way to be sure China is not harvesting vast amounts of valuable, game changing data.
China steal intellectual property all the time, stealing data is hardly different.
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No matter how many times you claim it’s “stealing”, it’s not. “Force technology transfer” might be a more accurate term. Maybe it’s not fair when looking at it from your perspective, but if you want to make money in China’s market, you have to play by Chinese rules, it’s only fair.
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It seems to me that these efforts are like trying to empty the water out of the ocean with a teacup. The U.S., and the world for that matter, has ceded so much of its manufacturing capacity to China over the past 40 years. China turns out the engineers. Chinese wages are far far lower than US/EU wages. Look at the infrastructure investment China is making in China, in the third world, and guided by a comprehensive strategy of global mercantilism. Look at China's new Silk Road investment.
During those same years we have hollowed out our manufacturing core, allowed our infrastructure to crumble, trashed elementary and secondary education and facilitated a huge wealth transfer to the 0.1% who now look for investment opportunities to .....China. Much of this may have been unavoidable but the Koch Brothers and Wall Street have pitched in to move it right along.
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@highway I totally agree with your assessment, as after early retirement and belatedly taking a degree BA (Hons) Politics I went teaching in China for ten years, so the only reason I mentioned my degree is that combined with my experience as a Detachment Commander Artillery Intelligence operator during the Cold War, they gave me an excellent mindset for analysing China's growth first hand. Because of the issues raised in your comments, as well as the amount of stolen and forced technology transfer China is now in a position to usurp the US as the world technology leader, especially for all it client states throughout the world won over by their huge investments loans etc. We are a the beginning of a new Cold War not just Trump's puerile trade war.
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@highway. And China has a third of the world’s population from which to generate those engineers etc. They put their money into education etc. while the US today puts it into TV reality show stars and tax cuts for billionaires. Long live “free market” capitalism!
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It wasn’t unavoidable. Other than that, you are spot on.