Report assesses Huawei challenges, 5G network building

A new Center for American Progress report details methods the United States can use to address expanding Huawei market and national security challenges and its 5G network building role.

The analysis maintains America has ignored the policies Beijing uses to make the tech company Huawei the global front-runner in supplying equipment for 5G networks. If the United States can counter those policies to make the market more competitive, it will be easier to solve the security risks of running global networks on Huawei equipment.

“The United States cannot succeed in bringing new competition to this market—and new opportunities for U.S. firms—until it effectively counters Beijing’s market distortions,” Melanie Hart, senior fellow and director of China Policy at CAP and co-author of the report, said.

The report’s recommendations include: the United States forming a coalition of nations to assess how Beijing’s direct and indirect subsidies harm the global market and devise appropriate trade remedies; conducting a comprehensive review to assess how Beijing uses credit to advantage Chinese firms over their competitors and engage the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized democracies to develop new rules limiting those actions; forming a coalition of export credit agencies to support vendors seeking to compete against Huawei and the loans Chinese state banks offer its customers; and engaging the key 5G standardization partners to improve leadership transparency and diversity at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).