The unintended consequence of US campaign against Huawei could be a global split in technology standards

The world could be set for a return to the 1980s when various regions used different telecommunications standards

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Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, has so far defied early predictions that it would stumble after the company was added to the US trade blacklist. Photo: AP

Li Taoin ShenzhenandTracy Quin Shanghai

Published: 6:30am, 24 Dec 2019Updated: 9:04am, 24 Dec 2019

When Huawei Technologies’ latest flagship smartphone was unveiled in September at an event in Munich without details of its release, that situation all but confirmed how the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker was struggling under a US trade ban.

Sale of the Mate 30 smartphone series in Europe, Huawei’s biggest market outside China, was delayed because the handsets have no access to Google apps and services after the Trump administration added the Shenzhen-based company to a trade blacklist in May. The Mate 30, sans Google apps, was finally released in limited quantities in Germany on December 12.

The immediate consequences of the US government’s campaign against Huawei, which is part of a broader trade and tech dispute between Washington and Beijing, have been well publicised. These include: a disruption in the global technology supply chain, a mad rush by major Chinese hi-tech companies to stockpile components, increased speculation about delays in 5G mobile network development worldwide and the Chinese government’s increased focus on spurring local development of core technologies.

The major unintended consequence, however, of the US action against China’s biggest technology company is that the world could be barrelling closer to a geographic split in hi-tech development and innovation, according to Paul Haswell, a partner who advises technology companies at international law firm Pinsent Masons. He said: “It’s like we’re heading back to the 80s, when North America supported a mobile communications system different from Europe’s, and Japan also ran its own wireless system.”

“The tech industry has been a major factor in expanding globalisation over the past decade, as innovation yielded global standards – such as those for the internet and advanced mobile networks – that have been widely adopted,” Haswell said. “My concern is that as US and Chinese tech development diverges, then so could trust in each country’s tech companies and innovations. That would be bad news for consumers around the world.”