Technology, Trade, and Security – Making Sense of the Huawei Controversy

• In Event: Outgoing China: Domestic Politics and International Implications

Abstract

Technology and trade are not what they used to be. Given increasingly interconnectivity, digitization, and capability to store and process data, trade in technologically sophisticated goods now also entails a variety of new security concerns. In this paper, we examine how these concerns are being addressed by focusing on the controversy that has developed over the use of equipment from the Chinese company Huawei to upgrade to new 5G communications infrastructure within the United States and its allies. Against a background of increasing security competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, how do policymakers go about weighing the advantages and risks of using Huawei-supplied technology? We look at the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan for clues to the emerging factors shaping their choices to use technology imports from China. We argue that due to the fact the technological issues will always involve a degree of uncertainty, it is psychological attitudes towards risk as shaped by perceptions of China that are the key variable.

Authors

• Todd H. Hall, University of Oxford

• Alanna Krolikowski, Missouri University of Science and Technology