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President Donald Trump’s recent warnings about Huawei, including threats to close London from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, and the National Security Council’s “ inter-agency review ” on the impact of the Huawei 5G on the ‘NATO could backfire on Washington, observers said.
Washington has made a concerted effort to pressure its NATO and Five Eyes Alliance partners to abandon plans to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei to build elements of their emerging 5G mobile networks .
Despite the lack of substantial evidence to charge Huawei with any of the charges brought by the United States (that is, the company is engaged in a systematic industrial espionage campaign or that it incorporates tools of spying on its products), the United States has put immense pressure on the allies to cut ties with the company, even as evidence continues to emerge that its own intelligence services have committed to spy on their allies for decades.
U.S. officials told Bloomberg on Thursday that the U.S. National Security Council has launched a review of military and intelligence cooperation with the United Kingdom in connection with threats related to Huawei.
Meanwhile, group of conservative lawmakers worried that Prime Minister Johnson’s decision to allow Huawei to help build UK 5G told reporters they were concerned that Huawei’s decision would jeopardize the trade deal necessary with Washington after Brexit, adding that they would try to pressure number 10 to change its mind.
Likewise, in late February, General Tod Wolters of the US Air Force, commander of the US European Command, warned that European networks using equipment created by Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, are facing a “increased risk” of information theft “by the Chinese government.”, While the Trump administration has called Huawei a “pseudo-mafia” potentially engaged in the blackmail of British lawmakers.
The United States is the one with an attitude problem
“Trump has a ugly mentality when it comes to strategic decisions where there are threats to American rule,” said Tom Luongo, geopolitical analyst and editor of Gold Goats’ n Guns, a monthly newsletter on the ‘investment. “In two key areas, energy and communications, Trump is determined to keep Europe attached to the United States rather than granting it independence. To achieve this, Trump will sanction, threaten and embark anyone who does business with those which constitute its greatest perceived threat to American domination. “
In fact, according to the Observer, the lack of top-down solutions like Huawei’s in the 5G market means that to address Washington’s concerns, Europe should risk falling behind competition in mobile communications from next generation, Trump is effectively trying to “try to delay European economic opportunities and associate them with … inferior technology. The same goes for US energy and sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 Russia-Western Europe joint venture, said Luongo.
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Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev
Employees work on the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline outside the city of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia
According to the analyst, the split between US President and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Huawei “indicates how ready Trump is to burn his friends who challenge him. It’s the mobster mentality … Will it break NATO? Conventional wisdom is that it won’t, but as we saw with the oil markets this week, change comes quickly when the situation is ready for it. “
In fact, Luongo believes that the European “distrust” of American wishes on both Huawei and Nord Stream 2 is an indication of the continent’s change of attitude towards the United States, especially as the allegations of Chinese espionage contrast with the actual and documented evidence from US intelligence agencies. do the same thing.
“Indeed, Europe realizes that the demands of the United States are [Washington’s] better than Europe. Trump clarifies where his red lines are because he cannot win his wars of civilization against Russia, China and Iran without the help of Europe. He will not admit it publicly, but that is the reality. Therein lies the leverage effect of Europe in these negotiations. The UK challenging it on Huawei is the signal that there is a split between the British secret service and the United States on this issue. If the British intelligence services were concerned about spying on China, they would be in tune with the United States about it. In fact, it is more likely that Europe will be tired than the United States will spy on them through our tech companies than it will be the case for China… Ultimately, if Trump intensifies, as he always done, it will accelerate the demise of NATO as a functional alliance as relations deteriorate, “concludes Luongo.
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AP Photo / Francisco Seco
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, center front left, chats with President Donald Trump, center front right, after a group photo during a meeting of NATO leaders at the Grove Hotel and Resort in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Wednesday December 4, 2019.
A lot of noise for nothing?
Andrew Leung, an independent veteran Chinese strategist based in Hong Kong, believes that the latest American threats are not new and are based much more on American fears of a Chinese threat to American world hegemony than on security. in the technology sector.
Europe, Leung suggests, has already taken a close look at US claims about Huawei’s alleged spying capabilities, realizing that while some steps can be taken to protect national security infrastructure, they ” also don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, by adopting [a] black and white response ”to requests from the United States, especially given the reality of global interconnectivity and China’s dependence on technology and other sectors.
“China is seen as an existential threat to American domination. China’s economy, even if it is slowing, is still poised to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy during this decade. And of course, in terms of technology, it seems that China is now gaining ground in a number of new areas such as 5G and artificial intelligence, “said Leung.
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Photo AP / Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He after signing a trade deal in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday January 15, 2020 in Washington.
The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.