Zong Wei, Gu Hongyu

The progress and development of human society is always changing with the updating of science and technology. In the mid-19th century, the invention of telegraph technology completely broke the geographical and spatial limitations of human information transmission (ancient communication technologies mainly included bonfires, homing pigeons, semaphores, post stations, etc.), and opened a new era of human information transmission and communication. It is worth noting that the upgrading of communication technology has not only changed people's life style, but also had a far-reaching impact on a country's economic, military and cultural development. Especially in the field of culture, the emergence and improvement of communication technology can strengthen the cultural communication and contact between countries on a global scale, and realize the common prosperity and cultural understanding of human civilization development.

However, in recent years, when China occupied the global leading position in the field of 5g technology, hostility from the United States increased. Since Huawei, as the representative of Chinese telecommunications companies, tried to enter the US telecommunications market in 2000, the US government has taken a series of measures to prevent the normal investment activities of Chinese telecommunications companies. Especially after Huawei's 5g technology took the lead, the rejection and blockade policies of the United States became more and more obvious. “5G” is an abbreviation for the fifth-generation mobile communication technology, which is different from the previous four generations of communication technology. 5G will form a three-dimensional "interconnected" space of people, machines, and objects as a new generation of information and communication infrastructure, carrying applications such as artificial intelligence and drones. Therefore, 5G has become the pioneer of the next wave of scientific and technological innovation. Most importantly, 5G will create trillion-scale market opportunities. Qualcomm together with a well-known industry research company, IHS Markit, mentioned in The 5G Economy: How 5G Technology Will Contribute To The Gobal Economy released in early 2018 that “In 2035,5G will enable $12.3 trillion of global economic output. That is nearly equivalent to US consumer spending in 2016 and more than the combined spending by consumers in China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France in 2016.The global 5G value chain will generate $3.5 trillion in output and support 22 million jobs in 2035.”The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology mentioned in the White Paper on 5G Economic and Social Impact released at the "2017 IMT-2020 (5G) Summit": By 2030, in terms of direct contributions, 5G will enable a total output of 6.3 trillion yuan and economic value added of 2.9 trillion yuan and create 8 million new jobs; in terms of indirect contributions, 5G will enable a total output of 10.6 trillion yuan and economic value added of 3.6 trillion yuan, and add 11.5 million new jobs.”

Given the importance of 5G, the U.S. government has made every effort to put the crackdown on Huawei on the foremost agenda of its foreign policies. Since Trump took office in 2017, the Trump administration has always been hostile to the rise of Huawei, and he has even repeatedly asked other countries to give up using Huawei's 5g equipment in public. On July 14, 2020, the UK announced that it would ban its mobile operators from purchasing Huawei's 5G equipment from 2021 and exclude Huawei from the UK's 5G equipment supply before 2027. The British government rejected Huawei on the grounds of national security, which largely originated from the new sanctions imposed by the United States on Huawei. In other words, it was forced by the political pressure of the United States to take sides on the issue.

In the long run, America's suppression of China's 5g technology will hinder the communication and development of human civilization. 5G can provide higher speed, lower delay, more connections, faster mobile speed, higher security and more flexible service deployment capabilities. It is not only used in communication industry, but also widely used in other industries, such as medical treatment, port, security, education, energy and other fields. It is worth mentioning that in the field of culture, with the access of 5G high-definition equipment, the communication between different nationalities in the world will become more visual and convenient, further breaking the regional restrictions on cultural communication. In today's globalization, the development and utilization of 5G depends on the exchanges and cooperation among countries all over the world, and it must be the common innovation achievement of the international community. Introducing political factors into the development, utilization and cooperation of 5G , even politicizing related issues, and adopting discriminatory practices are not only detrimental to the development of 5G, but also contrary to the principle of fair competition and the common interests of the international community. The formulation of 5G rules and standards should listen to and absorb the opinions of all stakeholders as widely as possible, and discuss them through an open and inclusive multilateral process under the framework of a universally representative and authoritative mechanism. China will continue to uphold the principle of co-construction, co-construction and sharing, strengthen scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation with all parties in terms of 5G. Let us seize the great development opportunities brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution, and make positive contributions to promoting the well-being of all mankind together.

(Zong Wei is a Ph.D candidate at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Ming Zu University of China；Gu Hongyu is a lecturer at the English Department of  Faculty of Foreign Languages and Cultures in Kunming University of Science And Technology; )