Huawei, the United States and us

Jérémie Bongiovanni - Mondays in the news

Huawei has been in turmoil for several weeks now. Against a backdrop of economic warfare, the US government is refusing to allow the Chinese equipment manufacturer to build a 5G network in the USA, and has even taken legal action against it. According to the German-language press, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has no problem with Huawei's presence in Switzerland. How is Switzerland faring in this battle of the giants?

Washington accuses the Chinese government of using Huawei for espionage purposes. If Huawei's accusations are true, the threat to Western countries would be enormous. Indeed, 5G is unique in that it will not only better link human communications, but also the communication of interconnected objects, which are increasingly numerous and whose ability to collect information about us is still unknown to many of us. Companies will not only see an enormous amount of information passing through their infrastructures, but the nature of this data will be even more sensitive.

Moreover, the main danger obviously lies in the interception of national security communications. However, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service has found no evidence to suggest that Huawei would wish to pass on such information to the Chinese government. There is every reason to believe that Huawei's visit to Switzerland will be accepted, despite pressure from the USA.

Economic warfare

At a conference at the University of St. Gallen, China's ambassador to Switzerland, Geng Wenbing, explicitly denounced American strategy and bad faith. The skilful speaker seemed close to convincing the roomful of Westerners bottle-fed by Uncle Sam, who suddenly seemed sensitive to the injustice denounced by the Beijing representative. When you realize that an hour's lecture has turned your head, so to speak, you're convinced that the main dimension of this conflict is political. Not once were facts mentioned in this so-called «espionage» affair.

The United States, engaged in an economic confrontation with China, has a vested interest in preventing such a successful Chinese player from expanding into the American market. Visit Huawei figures are staggering: sales have risen from 12 to 80 billion in less than ten years, profits have risen from one to six billion over the same period, and investment in research and development is equivalent to 15% of sales!

Political stakes

Switzerland seems to have understood this, and is therefore also making relations with Beijing, pretending to be interested only in trade and blind to to be interested only in trade and blind to political logic. Switzerland has been applying this approach for several years now, which, in the end under the guise of doing nothing but business. business, to maintain a solid relationship with China. Switzerland benefited from the free trade agreement with China, which came into force in 2014. since 2015 to establish collaboration between the Swiss and Chinese exchanges.

The Chinese government's aggressive policy towards the West, notably through the «New Silk Roads» project, is being managed defensively by Europe and offensively by the United States. Switzerland will have to find its role in this new balance of power. For the time being, its fact-based policy, culturally distant from US show politics, is paying off.

Photo credits: © Flickr

Write to the author: jeremie.bongiovanni@leregardlibre.com