The digital war | Page12

When, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the British empire showed a strong trade deficit with China and wanted to rebalance it by selling more, he found the disinterest of the emperor and engaged in real guns in both opium wars humiliating the great Asian country. China, its dynastic system, was in crisis and was retreating after thousands of years. Today, the United States, the "improved" heir of British power, do not intend to bomb China, with the exception of its strategists the more virulent; In fact, the Pentagon has already defined it, along with Russia, as the enemy of the 21st century. Another difference is that China is not in a phase of decline, quite the opposite.

But the big problem of the "commercial" war, against Huawei and for the control of the new technologies, is the interdependence of the two largest economies of the world, which did not happen even at a distance between this Great Britain and the Qing Empire.

A few weeks ago, under pressure from the US "free market" government, Google announced that it was pulling out of Huawei platforms and carried a new blow to the Chinese telecommunications company, which is already doing so. the subject of a lawsuit in the United States, with arrested leaders, and resistance to their advances in the 5G service being installed in the West. Huawei, who has slipped between Samsung and Apple and wants to reach the podium by 2020, is affected.

In addition, because behind the decision of Google and under the pressure of Washington, joined other large companies, such as Intel, DatCom and many others, as it could be also now DJI, the largest manufacturer of drones in the United States. world. The Department of Homeland Security's Cyber ​​Intelligence Agency (CISA) said, "The US must pay attention to drones manufactured by China, and may contain components that could compromise your information and information. share with servers outside your company. "

The Chinese government believes that Trump and his government are excessively mocking the idea of ​​China's supposed "threat" to its security with the aim of preventing or reducing all of its growth and economic capabilities. of global projection, for example increasing with these measures the mistrust of other countries (that in almost everyone already have to China as the main partner of trade, investment or finance, or three variables together) to the great Asian nation.

Steve Banon, owner of a kind of international strategist and (ex?) Trump right, said that attacking Huawei is more important than the trade issue with China, endorsed as an excuse of what really matters in that case. to fight beyond the tariff increases, which are substantial: the latest escalation by the United States was to increase them by 10 to 25%, or 200 billion dollars.

The chain of possible consequences, in addition to the increase in tariffs by China, is multiple and unpredictable. It has been said, for example, that the majority of American farmers, a major constituency of Donald Trump, used Huawei. And there is speculation that China could react by limiting or banning its exports of "rare earth" products to the United States, which is the key to many technology industries, and where a third of the world's reserves are in production. China.

It could also restrict or prohibit further purchases to Boeing – a company already in trouble due to accidents occurring with its 737 MAX airplane accidents and subsequent lawsuits – for Chinese airlines. AmChan, the very powerful American Chamber of Commerce, is worried about Chinese retaliation, said Tim Stratford, its chairman.

Clearly, all sanctions are double-edged, both by the United States and China, given the interaction of many of their industries and productive sectors. To continue with the example of Boeing, 14% of its profits last year came from China. In Shanghai, US aerospace has one of its aircraft termination plants.

In explaining the unpredictable consequences of a technological war, by showing on a mobile phone the diversity of the origin of each component, the specialist Dave Lee told the BBC that a "balkanization" of these industries could occur, and the Bloomberg agency, speaking of "digital cold war" and "digital iron curtain," said that China would accelerate its own information technology industry to reduce as much as possible dependence on imported inputs. It even appeared that in June, there would already be an active replacement instead of Android in their phones.

In programs, this has already been successful in developing alternatives to mainstream Western platforms such as Gmail, Facebook, Whatsup and others with their own networks, in some cases of superior quality. In fact, Huawei and other computer and mobile phone service providers do not offer Google's banned products in China, such as Gmail, YouTube or Google Maps, and offer their users in China alternatives such as Tencent, WeChato Badiu (BIDU) Cards.

And Latin America? Chilean geographer Ivan Borcoski told Cash that "during his trip to South America, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke about Venezuela's main problem – no, it's the Huawei facility in Puerto Williams. southern Chile, where it will be a telecommunication node in our region. "According to the expert," 5G technology is gaining vital importance in "data capitalism" as it provides the technical conditions for continuing to progress in the "new economy", which has its electronic spearhead in electronic money and robotics ". Other experts are still adding a fight: quantum computing, instead of digital, where the Chinese are also in the running.

Last November, Presidents Donald Tump and Xi Jinping met in Buenos Aires for the G20 and negotiated a truce that has not yet taken place. At the end of June, they will find themselves in the same circumstances, but in Tokyo