US focus on blocking China’s 5G technology misses bigger manufacturing risk

FILE PHOTO: A journalist uses his mobile phone to take a picture of the 5G logo prior to the auction of spectrum for 5G services at the Bundesnetzagentur head quarters in Mainz, Germany, March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

China’s Great Firewall, erected over the past 15 years to restrict domestic access to the Internet, may be a bigger problem than concerns over the spread of China’s 5G technology, according to a US venture capital investor.

Fears that networking equipment manufactured by China’s national champion Huawei Technologies could offer Beijing a back door to spy on computer networks may not be as big a deal as China’s Great Firewall effectively dictating how devices connected via this new technology will be manufactured, said the investor.