Chap 16: Taking Back Trump's America Serialization

Sixteen: Whiffing and Waffling on Huawei

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in recent days urged U.S. suppliers of Huawei Technologies Co. to seek licenses to resume sales to the blacklisted Chinese firm…The development reflects a recent reversal of the Trump administration’s get-tough stance on Huawei….

The Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2019

As you read this, Huawei remains on the existential threat cusp of consolidating global control of 5G, one of the most powerful civilian and military technologies in world history.

The previous "G’s" represent the technologies that have powered your own cell phone and wireless communications. If you can hear me now, and you’re in the middle of just about nowhere, you’re probably connected to at least a 4G network.

5G is 4G on rocket fuel. It stands for “fifth-generation cellular communications technology;” and 5G’s dramatic increase in both speed and capacity suggests more of a revolution than an evolution.

This is very dangerous revolution because 5G is not just a way to make lightning fast, no-drop phone calls to your friends or in a business environment. 5G also has the power to seamlessly interconnect both people and machines in ways that will lead to a dramatic increase not just in productivity but also in dangerous cyber vulnerabilities and military lethality.

To be macabrely specific here, just imagine Communist China using Huawei’s 5G networks to turn off America’s electricity grids and transportation systems – or to make U.S. Air Force planes drop from the skies over the Taiwan Strait– and you get the existential threat picture.

My point is simply that you don’t need a classified briefing – although I had plenty of those on 5G – to understand the potential pitfalls of allowing a Communist Chinese state-directed company like Huawei to seize the commanding heights of 5G. And when I say “commanding heights,” I’m referring to Huawei’s global strategy to be the technology and network of choice for the communication networks of every country around the world – from the salons of Europe and flyover country of America to the teeming cities of Africa and Asia.

In light of all we knew, we on the Trump Trade Team had a solemn duty to stop this particularly pernicious form of Chinese economic expansionism from occurring on POTUS45’s watch. So what exactly did we do – and not do – about the Huawei 5G threat?