Sun Tzu once wrote, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
Xi Jinping has taken notice. His aim is to displace the American-led liberal international order without firing a shot. He knows that if China isn’t clever, the world will wake up to his goal — a world in which democracy, the rule of law, and individual rights are subjugated to Beijing. Like Sun Tzu, Xi wants to secure his stranglehold on the enemy before the enemy realizes what’s going on.
And a key element of Xi’s strategy is the Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei.
China pretends that Huawei is just another Apple or Microsoft — a technology giant designed to provide communication and hardware services to consumers. But this is a lie. Huawei is funded, designed, and ultimately controlled by the Chinese security services. Built on the back of stolen American intellectual property and supported by generous state subsidies, Huawei aims to offer good phones and 5G networks to the world at a fraction of its competitors’ costs.
But that’s only the tactical means to the strategic end. Huawei’s ultimate objectives are twofold. First, to make the critical infrastructure of the future wholly reliant on China. Second, to provide China a backdoor into the private lives of foreign citizens and the deliberations of their governments. Once China has achieved this control, it will have won without having to go to war.
This is not a hypothetical concern. Huawei has built-in software flaws which, while designed to give the appearance of design mistakes, are actually deniable portals to enable future spying and network disruption avenues for the Communist Chinese regime. Xi aims to use Huawei to blackmail individuals into its service, steal their property, and anticipate their decisions.
Fortunately, the Trump administration is giving Huawei some problems, clamping down and pushing the world to recognize what Huawei actually is. It’s working. More and more nations are giving Huawei’s apparently affordable 5G offers a closer look. And with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent election victory in the United Kingdom, America’s closest ally seems likely to ban Huawei from its 5G networks.
China is fighting back, making relief for Huawei part of a trade deal with America.
At the same time, Huawei is engaging in a massive public relations campaign to persuade foreign populations that it’s their irreplaceable friend. Visiting Britain over the holidays, I have been struck by the relentless Huawei ads that pop up on Twitter. Huawei is investing in snazzy events, such as a pre-Christmas reception at one of London’s coolest spots. It has enlisted popular stars such as Liam Payne to sanitize its product line. And it’s not just Britain’s youth that Huawei has its eyes on. In offering classical music extravaganzas, Huawei aims to earn the favor of the British middle and upper-middle class.
The British people mustn’t delude themselves. Huawei might seem like a new Apple, but like its masters, it’s an enemy hiding in plain sight. If allowed to do so, it will steal the future.
