Winning the 5G Race with China: A U.S.-Japan Strategy to Trip the Competition, Run Faster, and Put the Fix In

Scott W. Harold and Rika Kamijima-Tsunoda

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Executive Summary

This article argues that China’s 5G wireless information and communications technology (ICT) poses serious risks to privacy and national security and describes a potential U.S.-Japan strategy for countering these threats.

Main Argument 

Chinese leaders have promoted 5G ICT as a component of both the Belt and Road Initiative and Military-Civil Fusion—efforts intended to extend China’s influence around the world for national, commercial, and military advantage. Under Chinese law, 5G ICT firms like Huawei and ZTE are required to grant Chinese authorities access to any data that touches their systems. In response, the U.S. and Japan should consider working to counter the advantages of Chinese firms by cutting off their access to key markets, technology inputs, talent, and capital (“tripping the competition”); build up free-world alternatives (“running faster”); and restructure the global playing field to protect privacy, economic competition, and national security (“putting the fix in”).