Thought of the Day “William Barr, 5G, China and the Threat of Cyber Attacks” Sydney Williams
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It is a given that war produces physical and psychological horrors that statistics do not describe, movies cannot portray, and fiction cannot illustrate. It is a maxim that the best way to avoid war is to be so strong and so vigilant that no rational nation or group will attack. Even then, there will always be attempts, for reason is too often absent and evil is always with us.
The next major attack on the United States is less likely to come from missiles or suicide-intentioned terrorists, and more likely to emanate from disruption or corruption of technology systems that govern our lives. Any enemy state or terrorist organization could be the culprit, but high on the list of bad actors are the Chinese. As the internet and “smart” devices become more pervasive in our lives, our dependency grows. We have become more vulnerable, as our negligence has allowed China to take the lead in the development of next generation networks known as 5G and the superfast networks. These technologies will facilitate communications; financial institutions; transportation systems, including rail, autonomous vehicles and highways; energy and utilities. “For the first time in our history,” Attorney General William Barr was blunt in his keynote address to the Department of Justice’s China Initiative Conference on February 6, “the United States is not leading the next technology era.”
It is 5G that is of concern. David Goldman, an American economist who as “Spengler” writes in the Asia Times, recently wrote in PJ Media: “We sat on our hands while China’s Huawei took the lead in the game-changing technology that will usher in what the Chinese call the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” Everybody has heard of 5G, but few appreciate its ramifications. Reading the Attorney General’s speech[1] woke me like a rooster crowing at `dawn. Barr is not new to this subject. He focused on China studies at Columbia University in the early 1970s and then spent fifteen years at GTE and its successor firm Verizon, so knows something of the communication industry. He quoted one of his classmates: “Russia wants to conquer the world. We can deal with that. China wants to own the world. That is going to be more challenging…”
China, according to the Attorney General, has 40% of the global 5G infrastructure market. China’s bid to be the supreme global power can be seen in its Belt and Road Initiative, which involves investments and development in nearly seventy countries, and in its activities in Africa where they provide financing in exchange for raw materials. As well as 5G, their omnivorous foreign policies can be seen in the transportation industry where, according to a recent article in the Financial Times, rail systems built by China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) now account for two thirds of all fast train lines in the world. They desire, as General James Mattis said in 2018, “other nations to become tribute states.”
“Politically,” Mr. Barr said, “the PRC (People’s Republic of China) remains a dictatorship under which the Communist Party elite jealously guards its monopoly on power…Centuries before Communism, China regarded itself as the Central Kingdom – the center of the world. Its ambition today is not to be a regional power, but a global one.” Huawei, in their drive into the bowels of the West, employs 50,000 foreigners. They operate two dozen research centers around the world. In 2011, they hired, as head of their UK business, John Suffolk, the then Chief Information Security Officer of the British government. The next year they hired Andy Purdy, a former member of George W. Bush’s White House staff, as the company’s chief security officer. That same year, with David Cameron as Prime minister, they announced an investment of £1.3 billion into the UK.
In 2015, China launched its “Made in China 2025 plan.” China’s development of 5G communications, through Huawei, are evolving into the central nervous system of the next generation of the internet, called the “Industrial Internet.” Its products, according to U.S. officials, will allow the company to spy on the cellular networks it builds out. China’s approach to customers includes the financing of developing the network, thereby, insidiously, tying customers to their systems. The U.S.’s response has been non-partisan, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted, in an otherwise rambling and somewhat incoherent speech at last weekend’s Munich Security Conference. She told them that when a country chooses Huawei to build out their 5G networks – even with strict monitoring – they are opting for “autocracy over democracy.” Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issued similar warnings at the same conference. According to reports, most Europeans sat stone-faced. Europe is delusional when it comes to security and defense. They sit alongside Russia, with China an important trading partner. Nevertheless, they feel entitled to be protected by the U.S. Yet, a recent Pew Research poll regarding NATO showed that only 38% of Europeans supported honoring commitments should one of their members be attacked by Russia. If delusional is the proper diagnosis; subjugation would be the consequence. Much of the West seems unaware of the trap into which the Chinese are luring them.
In July 2016, President Obama offered $400 million to back speedier networks for a 5G network. But that is in contrast to the $400 billion China expects to spend over the next ten years. In October of 2018, President Trump “instructed” the federal government to speed up investments in 5G. But, why have we allowed this situation to happen and who is to blame? Are we too late? Mr. Barr’s February 6 speech was a wake-up call. In it he floated the possibility of the U.S. taking controlling interests in Nokia or Erikson, or both. History shows that free market capitalism, with its risks and rewards, serves people better than planned economies, be they the German national socialism of the 1930s-40s, or the more recent Communist regimes of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or Venezuela. Yet sometimes government needs take the lead, as happened with the Manhattan Project, the response to Sputnik or the abandoned SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative).
In the report from which I drew the rubric that heads this essay, Simon Hunt concluded: “Back in 2015 China had the vision [of] how its economy would evolve with an aging population. All those factors Barr listed that spin off 5G – smart homes, smart appliances, smart factories, etc. – are already in place in China. America companies were too `caught up in their own hubris to visualize how 5G technology would pan out.” Huawei and the Chinese government are indistinguishable. What information is collected by the former is available to the latter. Even should our defense and intelligent services be safeguarded, can we ignore security risks to our financial, utility, transportation and energy businesses? I think not. Politicians were all over the alleged meddling of Russians in the 2016 election. Where is the sense of urgency in this far greater threat to our democracy? There are times when collaboration between business and government is critical. This may be one of those times.
[1] Barr’s speech can be accessed through the Department of Justice’s website. It was delivered on February 6 at the Department of Justice’s China Initiative Conference. I would encourage anyone concerned about this issue to read it.
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