The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin

The battle over technology has already been joined over 5G connectivity and, specifically, the Chinese company Huawei. The largest telecommunications company in the world and at the forefront of 5G—fifth-generation cellular network technology—Huawei has become one of China’s great national champions, a symbol of its technological and commercial prowess. Washington argues that Huawei’s technology provides a back door for Chinese government surveillance and possible manipulation and that the company is covertly connected to the government and the Communist Party. It banned Huawei from U.S. telecommunications networks and is trying to persuade other countries to do the same. Indeed, in a manner reminiscent of the British and German battleships before World War I, fifth-generation cellular—5G—along with Huawei has become in this era the embodiment of the new rivalry.