America's allies are being pushed by the Trump administration to ban Chinese tech companies – namely telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. – in an effort to curb China's governmental power in a new-age arms race, The New York Times reported.
"It's important to remember that Chinese company relationships with the Chinese government aren't like private sector company relationships with governments in the West," National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William R. Evanina told the Times. "China's 2017 National Intelligence Law requires Chinese companies to support, provide assistance and cooperate in China's national intelligence work, wherever they operate."
Countries are questioning the Trump administration's motives amid President Donald Trump's tariffs and trade war with China, but National Security Adviser John Bolton said the push is both economic and security focused.
"President Trump has identified overcoming this economic problem as critical, not simply to right the balance economically, to make China play by the rules everybody else plays by, but to prevent an imbalance in political/military power in the future as well," Bolton told The Washington Times on Friday. "The two aspects are very closely tied together in his mind."
Central to China's battle for control of the Internet airwaves is that of high-speed 5G cellphone networks and infrastructure, and the next six months are pivotal in attempts to wire the world, according to the report.
"This will be almost more important than electricity," Chris Lane, Hong Kong telecom analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, told the Times. "Everything will be connected, and the central nervous system of these smart cities will be your 5G network."
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