Huawei and fears about economic warfare

Huawei and fear of economic warfare

Real fears about Huawei have nothing to do with National Security or espionage. Fears about Huawei are about economics and the fact that now Chinese companies like Huawei can outbid any Western company at international level when bidding for contracts.

Nokia and Ericsson could hardly compete with Huawei in terms of getting things better at a lower price and at a time when even countries like UK are having to look very carefully at the monies they spend, Huawei will undoubtedly have the upper hand. While the EU and others have to deal with regulations regarding competition and subsidies, Chinese companies don't have to worry about lack of subsidies. The biggest foreign debt is the US Foreign Debt and China is one of its main creditors - if not the biggest creditor of the USA. If China were to mobilize the monies the USA owes to China, there would enough capital to over-run and outpace any Western company. Therefore, the issue is not about espionage. The issue is about economic warfare. China can buy whatever it wants to buy, but the West cannot afford to sell strategic assets to China. This is why the USA and other Western countries are claiming that there are issues of National Security. They cannot openly say that this is merely about economic warfare. They try and implement higher tariffs against Chinese exports, but if China buys into the USA and into the said countries the said investments would not be exports but national and local investments that will not be affected by tariffs on exports.

Today, it is about who controls the telecommunications industries. Tomorrow, it will be about heavy industries or food production. Why using any other means when you can buy countries directly? In a world of services, communications have crucial importance. Whoever controls the communications market has the upper hand when it comes to the rest of the economy. 

For the USA, repatriating jobs is not the same as allowing foreign companies to buy the USA. Awarding contracts to Ericsson looks like a safer bet than awarding the same conttracts to Huawei. This is not about National Security. This is about - once again - about economic warfare. Using the words of President Clinton, 'it's the economy, stupid.' 

The Conservative Party promised in its manifesto that it would develop communications networks in the UK to provide services to even the most remote community in the United Kingdom. It will be a costly exercise. They know that the prices demanded by Western companies will be much higher that the prices asked for by Huawei. Money makes the world go around. If you can pay less for better services, you can then have more monies for others projects including Trident and HS2. You can have more monies to provide advantages to Labour voters that chose to vote Conservative in the 2019 General Election. Behind the decision made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson there is a lot of strategic thinking. If he can get Huawei to deliver faster and cheaper what he promised in the 2019 Manifesto, those who can access new and faster services at a fraction of the cost will think more about having affordable and reliable services.