Losing the battle, Trump goes nuke on Huawei
Updated 14:47, 16-May-2019
Tom Fowdy
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Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, the UK and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
President of the United States Donald Trump on Tuesday night signed an executive order banning American companies from purchasing telecommunications equipment from companies associated with "foreign adversaries," invoking the utilization of national emergency powers to do so.
In tandem, the U.S. Department of Commerce added the Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE, as well as 70 affiliates, to its "entity list," banning the companies from buying any parts from U.S firms without government approval. The moves come amid Trump's escalation of the trade war between Washington and Beijing, with America having increased tariffs on imports from China the previous week.
The timing of it all is no coincidence. Huawei has long been weaponized by America as part of the broader economic tensions between the two countries. The executive order itself was prepared last year, but shelved as talks were ongoing.
Nevertheless, threatened by the emergence of a technological giant beyond its own hegemony, the White House has persistently sought to forcibly contain the firm's global advances on every avenue through a number of defamatory and coercive messages.
With Washington's diplomatic effort to exclude Huawei from global 5G networks having failed tremendously, Trump has now gone for the nuclear option: that is to ban it from the U.S. market via an abuse of emergency powers and attempt to deprive it of the necessary parts needed to construct the networks.
Huawei, however, is likely to overcome the challenge. Nevertheless, the act is sheer foul play: an act of obvious and cynical protectionism rendered opportunistically in the name of "national security" by a wholly dishonest, jealous and coercive presidential administration.
Why does America dislike Huawei so intensively? The answer isn't really as the Western media claims, "espionage", but rather it is a broader question of technological hegemony.
Huawei is the only major telecommunications and technology provider in the world that is not located under the "strategic umbrella" of American interests. The firm's rapid ascendency and growing popularity throughout global markets consequentially threaten a status quo technology order dominated by the United States.
Politicians in Washington subsequently fear that China will eventually overtake the country in terms of technological innovation and place them at a strategic disadvantage.
However, the response to this by the Trump administration has been less than appropriate. Rather than earnestly competing against Huawei and driving forward domestic innovation, the White House has instead sought to pursue a series of coercive, defamatory and aggressive actions toward the company under the false and opportunistic pretense of "national security."
This has been weaponized in tandem with Trump's trade war against Beijing. When Trump escalated the conflict, he upped measures against the company simultaneously in the bid to use it as a leverage. At the same time and regardless of context, the administration has pursued a global campaign to try and exclude the company from the construction of 5G networks, lobbying and threatening allied states.
This however, hasn't been a success. Apart from Australia and New Zealand, few took any notice of Washington's claims.
The U.S. was told again and again that there was "no evidence" of a threat. Ally after ally said no, with some reiterating that it was simply none of America's business. Not even the UK got on board with a ban, seeing Huawei as an inexpensive route to attaining 5G capabilities. The Trump administration's bid to globalize this aggressive campaign against the firm was for all intents and purposes, a failure; even to the point of many mainstream media outlets acknowledging that.
Given this, using the escalation of the trade war as a pretense, the Trump administration has now pursued the nuclear option to weaponize an executive order to ban the company from engaging with U.S. suppliers. As some analysts observe, this is an attempt to derail Huawei 5G network construction by depriving it of parts produced by America. Unable to create a global coalition, all that is left is pure coercion.
Will this derail Huawei? Not likely. Huawei is not totally dependent upon the American market. Some analysts have argued that whilst the move may temporarily delay the company's plans to roll out 5G network, many of the required parts can be purchased readily from alternative sources. This means that it is only American companies that will lose out on business in the long run.
As a whole, this is an abrasive, opportunistic and cynical move from the Trump administration. The routine abuse of national emergency powers to force through sweeping and unrestrained executive actions upon false pretenses has not been accepted in other policy areas so it should not be accepted here.
The Huawei campaign has been conducted in a manner which best resembles juvenile jealousy. Yet above all what it does not do and cannot do is provide any sort of alternative to the technological achievements, Washington has grown so deeply to resent the Chinese firm.
(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414f78457a4e34457a6333566d54/index.html
Updated 14:47, 16-May-2019
Tom Fowdy
Share
Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, the UK and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
President of the United States Donald Trump on Tuesday night signed an executive order banning American companies from purchasing telecommunications equipment from companies associated with "foreign adversaries," invoking the utilization of national emergency powers to do so.
In tandem, the U.S. Department of Commerce added the Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE, as well as 70 affiliates, to its "entity list," banning the companies from buying any parts from U.S firms without government approval. The moves come amid Trump's escalation of the trade war between Washington and Beijing, with America having increased tariffs on imports from China the previous week.
The timing of it all is no coincidence. Huawei has long been weaponized by America as part of the broader economic tensions between the two countries. The executive order itself was prepared last year, but shelved as talks were ongoing.
Nevertheless, threatened by the emergence of a technological giant beyond its own hegemony, the White House has persistently sought to forcibly contain the firm's global advances on every avenue through a number of defamatory and coercive messages.
With Washington's diplomatic effort to exclude Huawei from global 5G networks having failed tremendously, Trump has now gone for the nuclear option: that is to ban it from the U.S. market via an abuse of emergency powers and attempt to deprive it of the necessary parts needed to construct the networks.
Huawei, however, is likely to overcome the challenge. Nevertheless, the act is sheer foul play: an act of obvious and cynical protectionism rendered opportunistically in the name of "national security" by a wholly dishonest, jealous and coercive presidential administration.
Why does America dislike Huawei so intensively? The answer isn't really as the Western media claims, "espionage", but rather it is a broader question of technological hegemony.
Huawei is the only major telecommunications and technology provider in the world that is not located under the "strategic umbrella" of American interests. The firm's rapid ascendency and growing popularity throughout global markets consequentially threaten a status quo technology order dominated by the United States.
Politicians in Washington subsequently fear that China will eventually overtake the country in terms of technological innovation and place them at a strategic disadvantage.
However, the response to this by the Trump administration has been less than appropriate. Rather than earnestly competing against Huawei and driving forward domestic innovation, the White House has instead sought to pursue a series of coercive, defamatory and aggressive actions toward the company under the false and opportunistic pretense of "national security."
This has been weaponized in tandem with Trump's trade war against Beijing. When Trump escalated the conflict, he upped measures against the company simultaneously in the bid to use it as a leverage. At the same time and regardless of context, the administration has pursued a global campaign to try and exclude the company from the construction of 5G networks, lobbying and threatening allied states.
This however, hasn't been a success. Apart from Australia and New Zealand, few took any notice of Washington's claims.
The U.S. was told again and again that there was "no evidence" of a threat. Ally after ally said no, with some reiterating that it was simply none of America's business. Not even the UK got on board with a ban, seeing Huawei as an inexpensive route to attaining 5G capabilities. The Trump administration's bid to globalize this aggressive campaign against the firm was for all intents and purposes, a failure; even to the point of many mainstream media outlets acknowledging that.
Given this, using the escalation of the trade war as a pretense, the Trump administration has now pursued the nuclear option to weaponize an executive order to ban the company from engaging with U.S. suppliers. As some analysts observe, this is an attempt to derail Huawei 5G network construction by depriving it of parts produced by America. Unable to create a global coalition, all that is left is pure coercion.
Will this derail Huawei? Not likely. Huawei is not totally dependent upon the American market. Some analysts have argued that whilst the move may temporarily delay the company's plans to roll out 5G network, many of the required parts can be purchased readily from alternative sources. This means that it is only American companies that will lose out on business in the long run.
As a whole, this is an abrasive, opportunistic and cynical move from the Trump administration. The routine abuse of national emergency powers to force through sweeping and unrestrained executive actions upon false pretenses has not been accepted in other policy areas so it should not be accepted here.
The Huawei campaign has been conducted in a manner which best resembles juvenile jealousy. Yet above all what it does not do and cannot do is provide any sort of alternative to the technological achievements, Washington has grown so deeply to resent the Chinese firm.
(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414f78457a4e34457a6333566d54/index.html
