Open standards, not sanctions, are America’s best weapon against Huawei

TECHNOLOGY IS POWER5G5G5G5GDC. Whoever controls the global digital infrastructure controls the world. That is why America is so worried about China’s rise as a technological superpower. It also explains why it is going to such lengths, even using European-style industrial policy, to rein in Huawei, China’s leading maker of telecoms equipment. The company leads the world in , the next generation of mobile networks, which are expected to become the central nervous system of the global economy.Yet by any measure America is losing the fight against Huawei, along with what President Donald Trump, steeped in zero-sum thinking, calls the “race to ”. The Chinese firm keeps on growing; the rollout of in China continues apace; and most of America’s allies have so far ignored its entreaties to ban Huawei gear entirely from their national networks on security grounds. Even so, the Trump administration seems intent on doubling down on its strategy. If hawks have their way, any chipmaker that uses American technology, which nearly all do, will soon have to ask for permission in Washington, , to sell its wares to Huawei.