by Machar J. Ater
Huawei is the private technological company founded by the former Chinese military officer Ren Zhengfei. It is one of the leading companies developing 5G networks worldwide. The company’s rise has raised security and safety concerns across the developed world. Faced with such rapid technological challenges, EU tech companies are now left behind Huawei. So, why aren’t there any EU companies capable of developing a 5G network? What lessons should the EU learn from the Huawei rapid development and growth? What are economic and political ramifications facing EU as a block in dealing with China Huawei?
Under Deng Xiaoping, China was undergoing massive economic transformations that opened China to the rest of the world. Such changes resulted from the symbiotic relations between the government and private companies from which a company like Huawei came into being. In addition, the Chinses authorities took measures that protected these companies from competition coming from outside of the country.
In China, the close links between the government and the private sectors led public agencies to be directly involved in the running of private companies. This explains why these companies can benefit from their government’s political and diplomatic support. Such a support enables these companies to access lending facilities that put them in advantageous positions compared with their EU counterparts.
In the digital sector, such a strategy led China to become a world leader in capturing information and developing new applications. As a result, Huawei benefited from developing those digital capabilities, from artificial learning, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.
Huawei also benefits from the political stability resulting from the one-party rule system controlled by the Communist party. Such stability contrasts with the EU, in which leadership is constantly subject to changes because of the holding of competitive elections.
The EU is not a country or a federation with capabilities and resources that would be made it possible to prioritize research and development of a 5G telecommunication network. The EU proved unable to come up with a unified and comprehensive approach. The lack of such an approach applies to other areas such as artificial intelligence, the internet, and other technological issues. Conversely, the EU member states have different priorities and put resources individually on research to develop a 5G telecommunication network.
The EU fears of Huawei 5G network in Europe are sound because of China’s Cyber security law of 2017, which legally requires all the Chinese technology companies to turn over any information and to comply with China’s intelligence and security service. There will be a possibility for Huawei to install a backdoor for the Chinese Security agents to steal personal information, and Huawei could also access the personal data of EU citizens and consumers for the benefit of the Chinese government.
The EU is a wealthy bloc but has not been able to allocate resources to foster research and development in the 5G telecommunication networks compared with China. The government has used its economic power to facilitate artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and 5G telecommunication networks.
There is need for the EU and its member states to mobilize both human and financial resources needed for supporting research and development activities in the field of 5G telecommunication networks. The member states need to cooperate and coordinate with the EU institutions (EU president, EU commission and EU parliament) to develop a 5G system that could compete with the one of Huawei. There is indeed an urgent need for the EU and its Member states to become less dependent on Chinese technologies to protect its institutions and personal information of its citizens.