One of the biggest issues that President Trump is pushing forward is his claim that China is undermining US economic stability on its way to overcoming the US as the world’s leading economy. This has led to some interesting developments in how Congress deals with Chinese imports, especially when looking at telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE.
Texas Representative Mike Conaway introduced a bill as his defense of the U.S. Government Communications Act which will ban import and trade of products from these two Chinese companies. He backs this act by claiming that these two companies will undermine the national security of the US and as such should be banned from entering the country.
Whether this is true or not is irrelevant, it is how fear of Chinese superiority is starting to filter its way into the daily lives of US citizens. One of the greatest tools any leader can use is “fear,” we had “fear” as the tool used to fight communism in the 1950’s, “fear” as a tool to fight Islam at the turn of the 21st century, and now it’s time to deal with China.
Instead of finding ways to increase productivity, lower expenditure and increase inventiveness, governments prefer to respond ideally with fear. In the case of China, it’s a matter of too late and too little. China has succeeded to expand its influence all over Asia, Africa, The Middle East, Europe, South America and is slowly infiltrating Russia too.
The claim that Huawei and ZTE share information with their State Leaders is true, its the same with Alphabet and Microsoft sharing information with the NSA. Its done by every company that is loyal to its country. Therefore, banning Huawei and ZTE might mitigate a specific sector, but it will not stop the progress that China has in information gathering. There are thousands of companies that China is invested in, and it can gain access to the data from having Chinese nationals just being an executive board member of any US company.
This national concern for software and computer hardware intelligence issues is not limited to China. The UK has expressed major concerns with Kaspersky Labs and Russian influence. In fact, there is a growing concern with cybersecurity and national interests. While there is a war on hackers, crackers, and malware, there is another cyberwar going on between nations. Access and control of data as well as manipulation are all concerns for every government.
Another important fact to remember is the dependence on software and hardware is not a fleeting affair, it is a continuous dependence that affects our daily lives. The recent discovery that there were inbuilt flaws in Intel, AMD, and Arm processors that affects 90% of all electronic devices caused an immediate panic that was addressed by major corporations that use these items in their products.
However, for Huawei and ZTE this is not the issue, it is more the financial issue of being banned from taking over global dominance of the mobile kit industry. Huawei has dominated Asia and Europe with a cheaper alternative to Samsung, and only the US stops it from the global domination of this market.
65% of all mobile sales are for Android-operated devices, and Samsung dominates this sector in the US, while Huawei dominates it in Europe, UK, and Asia.
