As the China trade talks apparently have stalled, we would do well to remember what a very real part about this struggle with Beijing is about: it’s not just trade and jobs, but about who will control the technology of the future.
Above all, we are talking about the coming global 5G cellular networks. By all accounts, 5G is set to revolutionize industries. The question is who will control the networks and set the standards for 5G when it comes to privacy and the free flow of information.
China’s proxy in the fight is Huawei, which is really just an extension of the Communist government. One of our proxies in the struggle is the chipmaker giant Qualcomm. Yet in spite of the willingness of the Trump Administration to take this question seriously, one real danger to U.S. leadership on 5G is our own Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its baseless lawsuit against Qualcomm.