UK Shoots Self In Foot for Uncle Sam
By Finian Cunningham
July 16, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - In a dramatic
U-turn, the British government is scrapping
Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s involvement in
modernizing its internet infrastructure. And the
Trump White House is crowing with glee.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hailed
London’s decision as “protecting free-world
values”. What values might they be? Bullying,
intimidation, subservience, empire-building?
The Trump administration has been piling
pressure on the British to back away from
earlier plans to partner with Huawei for
developing its 5G wireless network. American
sanctions and a media campaign vilifying Chinese
technology as a national security threat seems
to have won the day.
Boris Johnson’s government
overturned its previous decision in January
to partner with Huawei. British telecom
operators have now been ordered to stop using
Huawei’s technology and to rip out existing 5G
equipment over a seven-year period.
The British government admits that this
reversal will result in delays for modernizing
the country’s telecoms services – seen as vital
for economic development – and will add huge
costs of up to £2 billion ($2.5 bn) for eventual
replacement. Something which taxpayers and
consumers will no doubt have to pay for.
So much for the much-vaunted Anglo-American
“special relationship”. It’s special alright.
Uncle Sam calls the shots – and Britain shoots
itself in the foot.
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It should be obvious that the whole debacle
has nothing to do with alleged “national
security concerns” and everything to do with
Washington strong-arming for commercial and
strategic advantage.
Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms
equipment maker, is supplanting American
technology across the world. And Washington is
endeavouring to blacklist the company in order
to give its own firms a competitive advantage.
The Trump administration has accused Huawei –
without evidence – of offering a backdoor to the
“Chinese Communist Party” for global
surveillance.
It takes a lot of brass neck for the
Americans to punt that particular line given the
actual global spying that its tech giants have
enabled the US-based National Security Agency to
conduct, as revealed by whistleblower Edward
Snowden.
The battle over technology and commerce is only part
of the bigger strategic struggle which Washington views
as vital to sustaining its presumed global power.
American capitalism and power view the world as a
zero-sum contest. All perceived competitors must be
vanquished or controlled so that American power can
prevail as an all-dominant entity.
To that end, Washington must necessarily portray the
world in polarizing Cold War terms of “us against them”,
or of so-called “allies against enemies”.
As Chinese and Russian diplomats have repeatedly
pointed out, Washington seems incapable of shedding its
Cold War ideology of “containment” and “great power
rivalry”. For American capitalism, the idea of mutual
partnership and cooperation is simply and utterly
anathema.
The fight with China over the telecoms industry is
just one front among many others in America’s wider
strategic conflict against Beijing.
Washington needs to kill the competition with
draconian interventions, either with propaganda,
sanctions or arm-twisting. Because the bigger picture is
about subjugating others to accept Washington’s
political, economic and military diktat.
China and Russia are not amenable about that
designated subordinate role desired by Washington. Hence
the Cold War revival and indeed intensification.
Ultimately, war is the potential endpoint.
In classic zero-sum mode, Washington is demanding
that its ostensible allies in Europe must shun Chinese
telecoms and Chinese commerce in general. The same
applies to trade with Russia as exemplified by America’s
bullying over the
Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
It is no coincidence that as Britain was set to
announce its “decision” (that is, Washington’s decision)
on Huawei, Trump’s national security adviser Robert
O’Brien was lobbying other European governments to
likewise ditch plans to partner with the Chinese firm
for
5G development.
Germany, France, Spain and Sweden, among other EU
members, appear to be moving ahead with their Huawei
partnership plans. They have so far rebuffed
Washington’s alleged fears over national security.
Not so Britain and other members of the US-led Five
Eyes nations: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. They,
not surprisingly, appear to have swallowed the “national
security” propaganda and anti-China bigotry with gusto.
Indeed so subservient is Britain to Washington, the
government in London seems willing to damage its own
economy and the wellbeing of its own people in order to
suck up a little favour from Uncle Sam.
The “free world”? Yeah, freedom to be a vassal.
Finian Cunningham has written
extensively on international affairs, with articles
published in several languages. He is a Master’s
graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a
scientific editor for the Royal Society of
Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a
career in newspaper journalism. He is also a
musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he
worked as an editor and writer in major news media
organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and
Independent. - "Source"
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