While Huawei may present a genuine security risk to the United States and the world, there are big problems with the current case against the telecommunications giant, and banning all forms of commerce is not the way forward.

In the current China-US trade war, some see an analogy to the Japan-US trade dispute over semiconductors in the 1980s. But past US success does not augur victory in the present conflict over 5G tech—today’s China is far more capable and innovative than 1980s Japan.

Trump’s idiosyncratic “art of the deal” apparently means putting extreme pressure on your negotiating partner to force them to surrender — but the US approach is based on faulty Trumpian economic assumptions and a misread of China’s growth history, and will only backfire.

The China-US trade war has turned into a “tech war,” with the US aiming to block Huawei from building global 5G networks. Proposals from the recent Prague conference reflect US efforts to reassert its tech dominance by getting allies to follow its lead. But with Trump’s “America First” attitude undermining the moral basis of American leadership, and US innovation lagging, protectionist bullying will not provide a firm foundation for hegemony.

Trump’s attacks on Huawei open the door to the long-term “decoupling” of Chinese and US cyberspace. Will this separation of the two countries’ tech industries achieve US goals? Or will it introduce political meddling into the previously free and open environmental of innovation in America’s digital economy, while reducing global trust in US tech giants?

On May 21, 2019, Ambassador Cui Tiankai had an interview with the Fox News's Bret Baier Special Report.

China’s latest earnings reports show that new technologies are at the center of national growth despite its slowing economy, with new energy vehicles and 5G communications equipment sellers performing especially well. Even so, China’s economy continues to suffer from softer global demand and the ongoing trade war with the U.S.

Trump, meanwhile, lashed out at Huawei after a former Obama-era official registered as a lobbyist for the firm.

5G technology has the potential to spark a new technological revolution, while recharging Europe’s ailing tech companies. But if the EU joins the US in waging “Tech Cold War” on China and Chinese companies like Huawei, Europe risks losing out on the advantages of this new generation of technology.