{"id":320903,"date":"2019-06-03T06:43:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T04:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=320903"},"modified":"2019-06-03T06:43:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T04:43:03","slug":"trumps-huawei-problem-asia-doesnt-want-us-to-kneecap-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/320903\/trumps-huawei-problem-asia-doesnt-want-us-to-kneecap-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Huawei problem: Asia doesn\u2019t want US to kneecap China"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Smoking cigarettes at Singapore\u2019s Shangri-La Hotel, the site of Asia\u2019s most prominent annual defense forum, members of China\u2019s military found themselves surprisingly upbeat this weekend.<\/p>\n

They expected the event to follow a typical routine: The US and its friends gang up on China, leaving it alone to push back against a host of complaints. But this year, with an escalating trade war threatening global growth, the People\u2019s Liberation Army officers saw other Asian leaders critiquing key aspects of the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on China.<\/p>\n

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong set the tone in his opening remarks, calling on the US to accommodate China\u2019s rise while downplaying the threat posed by Huawei Technologies Co. A Myanmar minister suggested US warnings about China\u2019s debt-trap diplomacy were overblown. And nearly everyone wanted the trade war to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is at stake is the existing global order, that even if not perfect has ensured peace and progress these last 70 years,\u201d Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen told the Shangri-La Dialogue. \u201cIt would be an egregious folly to throw this baby out with the bath water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blacklist Battle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fears are growing throughout Asia that a clash of superpowers will end up hurting smaller nations, many of which rely on exports to fuel the economic growth that provides jobs for millions of people. And while many Asian countries view the US as an essential check on China\u2019s power, they are also wary that President Donald Trump is going too far in trying to halt its rise.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s decision last month to blacklist Huawei, one of China\u2019s most strategically important companies, has roiled global markets already trying to digest the impact of higher tariffs in a year-long trade war that risks upending global supply chains.<\/p>\n

China has threatened to retaliate with a planned list of \u201c unreliable\u201d entities that could potentially affect thousands of foreign firms. On Saturday, Beijing said it opened an investigation into FedEx Corp after it accused the company of misdirecting packages. The company has apologized.<\/p>\n

In the middle are nations facing pressure from the US to avoid using Huawei equipment in 5G networks or take China\u2019s cash to fund infrastructure like deep-sea ports and high-speed railways. But that poses a problem: How else will they afford to move up the value-chain and deliver growth in the future?<\/p>\n

\u201cSome if not all regional countries may harbor concerns about the security ramifications of using Huawei, but there are real pragmatic considerations,\u201d said Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. \u201cCost-wise in particular, Chinese offers for infrastructure development present more attractive propositions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan sought to address funding worries in his speech, mentioning that the U.S. roughly doubled a competing infrastructure fund to $60 billion. He contrasted the American vision of a \u201cfree and open\u201d region with one \u201cwhere power determines place and debt determines destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many Asian countries, however, US funding isn\u2019t enough to meet their needs and generally comes with too many strings attached. Myanmar, for instance, found that China was the only country willing to finance a deep-sea port and industrial park on its coastline near Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, the decision to accept or not to accept such financing rests with the recipient country and not with Beijing,\u201d Thaung Tun, Myanmar\u2019s national security adviser, told the conference, dismissing the notion that China would indebt the country for strategic gains.<\/p>\n

\u2018Quantum Leaps\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for partners so we can take quantum leaps,\u201d he said later in an interview. \u201cAnd at the moment the funding is not forthcoming from the World Bank and other financial institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same considerations are at play with Huawei. Nations around the world are looking to build 5G networks that will power the modern economy, from self-driving cars to smart homes to advanced medicine. Andrea L. Thompson, a State Department official who attended the meeting in Singapore, said Sunday it \u201ctakes time\u201d to convince nations in the region to avoid using Huawei.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the lowest bidder for a reason – it\u2019s backed by the Chinese government,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cIf you want to expose your network – to be a dirty network, an untrusted network – there\u2019s a price to pay with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Asia\u2019s not really buying it. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad praised Huawei last week, saying it offers a \u201ctremendous advance over American technology.\u201d A Philippine official said Sunday it was hard to tell if US-based Apple Inc contained the same security risks as Huawei.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot be sure anymore,\u201d Rufino Lopez Jr., deputy director-general of the Philippine National Security Council, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Asian countries are listening to the US on Huawei but drawing different conclusions, according to David Gordon, former vice chairman of the US National Intelligence Council who is now a senior adviser at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re taking from the message is \u2018We have to watch this, we have to be careful, we have to mitigate,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cRather than what the US would like them to say, which is \u2018We need to stay away.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that Asia is embracing China with open arms. Speakers at the Shangri-La Dialogue challenged China\u2019s actions in contested waters, particularly regarding its assertiveness over territory claimed by other nations and moves that could hinder freedom of navigation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Uncompromising US\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, who said Sunday that China has no intention to replace the US as \u201cthe boss of this world,\u201d also irked Southeast Asian nations with his defense of construction work on disputed land features in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

But overall Asian leaders peppered their comments with nuance, a reflection of the constant need to leverage China\u2019s rise for economic gains without becoming so dependent that Beijing dictates political outcomes. And that balancing act stands in sharp contrast to the aggressive tactics currently employed by the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountries in the region cannot afford to sign up to an uncompromising US line,\u201d said Lynn Kuok, a visiting scholar at Yale Law School\u2019s Paul Tsai China Center. \u201cThey are in a region with a powerful neighbor and have always been pragmatic and flexible. Being uncompromising is not in their DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: What you need to know if you own a Huawei phone in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoking cigarettes at Singapore\u2019s Shangri-La Hotel, the site of Asia\u2019s most prominent annual defense forum, members of China\u2019s military found themselves surprisingly upbeat this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":225327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,1635],"class_list":["post-320903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-huawei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320907,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320903\/revisions\/320907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}