Work with Huawei, or us, but not both – US Government

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has upped the ante with the anti-China rhetoric, declaring the US will not partner with countries who work with Huawei.

According to Fox Business, Pompeo has dropped the inference and made a statement which many countries will be cringing to hear. You no-longer have to read between the lines; it them or us Pompeo is declaring.

“If a country adopts this and puts it in some of their critical information systems, we won’t be able to share information with them,” said Pompeo. “In some cases, there’s risk – we won’t even be able to co-locate American resources, an American embassy and American military outpost.”

For countries like the UK and Germany, this is worst case scenario. These are countries which have vested interests from an economic perspective in both countries, and such is the state of affairs in the telco world, few can afford to strip Huawei out of the vendor mix. Pompeo is referring to administrative and military functions right now, but it would be fair to assume this could be extended to US commerce.

It’s a very tricky position to be in.

On one hand, there simply aren’t enough vendors in certain segments of the telco industry to generate suitable levels of competition to create the most viable economic position to fuel future infrastructure ambitions. Secondly, taking a vendor such as Huawei, arguably the leader in radio equipment, out of the mix would-be worst-case scenario for a technologist. Why would you want to ignore the best kit available?

However, on the other side of the coin, the security concerns are persistent, and do have some credibility. Evidence is circumstantial, some of the claims are hearsay, however you cannot ignore the risk. China does have a law which would force nationals to comply with its ambitions.

Should Pompeo’s statement evolve into more than chest-beating, numerous countries will find themselves in a painful tug-of-war. It does look like European nations are resisting the US’ Governments call to stonewall China, but this could come at a cost.

The US and China are two major trade partners of almost every economy in the world. To work with the US, you’ll have to ban Huawei, but if you ban Huawei you can almost guarantee there will be some form of reciprocal action from the Chinese Government.

The UK is an excellent example. Huawei has recently released a statement reiterating the investments the company has made in the UK, as well as the number of people who are employed as a direct and indirect result of its investments. Should the UK Government want to seize the post-Brexit trade carrot which has been dangled by the White House, some sort of action against China will be required. There is going to be a loss somewhere.

Poland is in a similar position. Pompeo is quoted as seeing “real progress” in the country after meeting Ministers in Warsaw, though if Poland was to ban Huawei it would certainly have an economic and societal impact; Huawei currently uses the country as its Eastern European HQ, employing roughly 900 people and investing substantial funds.

Over in Germany, China is a significant market for its automotive and heavy industrial exports, though if it was to submit to the US Government demands, you can guarantee there will be some sort of kickback.

All of these countries are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Europe is proving to be a critical battleground in the US/Chinese war for technological supremacy, and while some narcissists might crave the attention, this is starting to turn into an impossible decision.