The indictment of Huawei as a criminal enterprise shows that the Trump administration was mistaken when it placated Beijing by softening previous penalties for Huawei’s misconduct. If the court finds Huawei guilty under RICO, the administration should ensure the full application of all penalties necessary to end its criminal pursuits.
Washington should view Ankara’s latest cyber campaigns as an extension of Turkey’s increasingly hostile foreign policy towards the United States and other allies. U.S. officials should expect more of the same type of attacks moving forward and must clearly communicate to their Turkish counterparts that support for or tolerance of these types of cyber operations will result in indictments, sanctions, and other comparable responses from Washington.
Suggesting Huawei represents a Chinese Trojan horse may be unfair to the Trojans. After all, the Trojans were unwitting victims of Greek subterfuge. In this case, however, the U.K. knows Beijing’s “gift” is riddled with threats and dangers – and London appears poised to wheel the gift inside its gates anyway.
These are just some of the reasons the Trump administration implored Boris Johnson to keep Huawei out. He let them in anyway. The fact that U.S. diplomacy failed here raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the State Department. Johnson’s decision will have major implications for the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. and, undoubtedly, for the future of 5G.
Across all of China, the CCP seeks to monitor its population through a social credit system. But within Xinjiang, Chinese authorities have built a system of unmatched surveillance and social control facilitated by facial recognition scans, voice biometric data, DNA collection, and artificial intelligence for racial profiling.