Why US Government May Invest In Europe To Counter Huawei Soon

The U.S. government has always been warning the world about Huawei’s technology. As of now, the UK decided to allow Huawei limited access to its 5G network as both work in building the infrastructure. However, the U.S has a viable path to compete with Huawei.

Huawei has been successful in its deal with the UK. The United Kingdom government has agreed to use Huawei technology for its 5G infrastructure and allowed limited access to Huawei as they use it. Additionally, the U.S. government is now thinking twice about making trade deals with the UK as it doesn’t want to endanger its data due to the possibility of Huawei’s technology reaching their country through the European country, as mentioned by Vice President Mike Pence in his statement last Friday (via CNBC).

Months prior to Pence's statement, Huawei had already looked into European countries for new partners after getting included in the U.S. government's Entity List. So far, only the UK government has fully decided on using Huawei technology while other countries are still thinking about the decision. The U.S. government's only efforts in the continent are its warnings about the security risks for using Huawei technology.

However, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that the government could invest in Huawei’s 5G competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia to fight off Huawei. Barr said that the U.S. government could align itself with these companies through “through American ownership of a controlling stake, either directly or through a consortium of private American and allied companies.”

Barr affirmed that getting controlling stake in these companies would provide the “financial muscle” to fight Huawei and overtake it in the 5G business. Many countries considered using Huawei 5G as it was ahead of Ericsson and Nokia’s 5G technology. U.S. government support could help these companies get ahead.

As of now, the U.S. government and the involved companies, Ericsson and Nokia, have yet to decide and give an official statement about this plan. If this plan pushes through, the U.S government can now show a rival company against Huawei in the 5G technology industry.

Previously, the U.S. government has also accused Huawei of working with the Chinese government to spy on other nations. The Huawei technology could have been used to take sensitive and important data without the user’s knowledge. Both the Chinese government and Huawei have denied these allegations but the U.S government has not stopped on warning its allies and other countries.

The U.S government has yet to show a solution or alternative to effectively prevent other countries from adopting Huawei technology outside of warning other nations.