Lindsay Gorman: 5G is where China and the West finally diverge

In the United States, suspicion of the Chinese government is a bipartisan matter, but no consensus exists about just what to do. The Trump administration has implemented a variety of hawkish policies, including restricting semiconductor sales in China and stopping a U.S. government retirement fund from investing in stocks there, and the president himself vowed Friday to ban TikTok, a popular app owned by a Chinese company. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called in a recent speech for a new alliance of democracies to counter the emerging superpower, although few details were offered. The draft of the 2020 Democratic Party platform broadly vows to rally friends and allies across the world to push back against China or any other countrys attempts to undermine international norms.

The problem is that the United States and its allies currently lack the ability to respond to the type of geo-economic threats that China is making. Specifically, they need a means of taking collective action when Beijing attempts to use economic power as a tool of political coercion. No country should face such threats alone.

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Many of Americas most important Cold Warera institutions, especially NATO, were designed to deter a primarily military threat from the Soviet Union. But back then, Moscowunlike Beijing nowhad limited economic leverage against the West. Global economic institutions such as the World Trade Organization were narrowly focused on trade agreements and rule-making to ensure fair economic competition, but did not consider the possibility of economic warfare or the danger of economic threats to force political concessions. Indeed, none of these alliances or institutions has been any help in addressing the Chinese economic threats against Australia, Germany, Sweden, or other nations.

Those threats also harm the United States. If China forces U.S. allies to use Huaweis technology in their information networks, American communications that go through those networks could be exposed to the Chinese Communist Partys infiltration. And Chinas rulers have sought to enforce the party line on Americans. Last year, Beijing punished the NBAs Houston Rockets when the teams general manager offered support for Hong Kongs prodemocracy protesters on Twitter, a platform blocked in China. The regime will likely grow bolder as Chinas economic might grows.

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New threats demand new responses. During the Cold War, the U.S. created not just NATO but also the CIA and the Air Force to respond to Soviet threats. The period brought about a wholly new form of intelligence competition between the West and the Soviet Union. This led the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to enter into the alliance commonly known as Five Eyes, which allowed unprecedented intelligence sharing among nations in peacetime. This approach would have been unimaginable before the Soviet geopolitical threat.

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How to Stop China From Imposing Its Values - The Atlantic