Is China Winning the 5G Battle? The Truth Might Surprise You

N

ews report after news report claims that the United States is falling behind in the development and deployment of 5G wireless technologies. With daily headlines like, “China is Racing Ahead in 5G. Here’s What That Means” most Americans assume the claims are accurate. The truth is that the media has been the willing victim of state sponsored propaganda peddled by agents of the Chinese government.

You might be wondering why the Chinese government would seek to convince western media outlets that west is falling behind when it comes to 5G technologies — the answer is actually pretty simple. The propaganda effort is a direct response to the decision not to allow Huawei to supply 5G equipment to members of The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance (FVEY). Members of the Alliance, including our own CIA, revealed that Huawei is funded by the People’s Liberation Army, China’s National Security Commission, and the Chinese State Intelligence Network. China is seeking to convince the west that they ought to rethink their ban on the deployment of Huawei technology unless they want to fall even further behind.

The irony is that China is actually behind the United States (and most western nations) when it comes to 5G. Americans, unlike the Chinese, can ALREADYpurchase 5G connectivity from more than three providers in each major city. In China there are three providers (all owned by the government) PLANNINGto launch 5G services in 2020 — today 5G is not available for sale in China. In fact, China Tower, the country’s exclusive deployment vendor, is targeting 2023 for 5G deployment in China’s major cities — they don’t plan to rollout the technology nationwide given the fact that 6G will likely be available before they would be able to complete a ubiquitous 5G deployment. On the other hand, most major American carriers plan to have total nationwide 5G coverage in the United States by the end of 2020. The fact that Huawei has been banned from the US market, contrary to China’s propaganda, will not slow these deployments.

The irony is that the Huawei ban will cripple Huawei’s ability to ship their solution and as a result significantly retard China’s own 5G deployments. Huawei’s 5G solution requires the use of key components and chips from scores of American suppliers including Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx, Lumentum, and Broadcom. All of whom have had to halt the sale of parts to Huawei as a result of the Commerce Department’s export restrictions. Huawei is scrambling to find alternatives while their government works to convince Americans that the ban will cripple the country’s telecom networks.

Members of FVEY, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States, have all concluded that the use of Huawei 5G technology in our communication networks would put national security at risk. It is well known within FVEY that Huawei built ‘Chinese-Eyes’ into their 5G solution — allowing China to listen in and/or shutdown any network using Huawei’s platform. Continued participation in the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, that allows for deep signals intelligence cooperation, will all but mandate that each signatory to the treaty uphold the Huawei ban.

The next time you read a headline about China’s lead in the 5G space take it with a grain of salt — and question why the Chinese government is working so hard to make sure that every network on the planet has equipment built by the vendor funded by their military and intelligence services. Oh and if you bought one of the 200 million Android phones made by Huawei last year you ought to think about switching to Apple or Samsung.