President Trump once said he knows more about technology than people think he does. But the techies in Silicon Valley know that’s a big fat, Big Mac-loving lie. Trump is tech-less except for his Twitter use. But now that Huawei, the Chinese company that supplies American phone makers with parts, is in on a quest to develop a 5G network before American companies do, Trump is an expert again.
In one of his recent tweets, Trump told Silicon Valley to develop a 6G network while they work on a 5G network. But Silicon Valley has no idea what Trump’s 6G network will do. Huawei and American companies are five years away from implementing a 5G network. That network will control the future, according to Silicon Valley tech experts. That’s why Trump jumped into the tech world by orchestrating the arrest of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada, according to the New York Times. Wanzhou is the daughter of Huawei’s founder.
Mr. Trump’s trade war has a lot of moving parts. One part of the trade war focuses on China reducing the tariff on American-made vehicles and other American products. Another part of Trump’s trade war focuses on China buying more American products. And the part that Trump never talks about is the tech part of the fight. Trump wants to slow down Huawei’s 5G development process. Several American companies believe China will spy on U.S. tech and other companies if Huawei develops 5G before Silicon Valley does. Trump wants to hang Meng over China’s head during the trade talks so that doesn’t happen, according to Chinese news reports.
Instead of promoting Silicon Valley’s progress in developing 5G, President Donald Trump undermined that progress by pushing for 6G when nothing like that exists or is in the development stage. Twitter got a kick out of Trump’s lack of tech knowledge. Silicon Valley knows Trump doesn’t have a clue what 6G means. 5G is the network that will bring the Internet to rural areas. And 5G will be the foundation for driverless vehicles, as well as other important social and economic advancements, in the foreseeable future.
According to several Silicon Valley executives, Huawei is ahead of U.S. Companies when it comes to the 5G development process. And Trump’s tweets didn’t help change that perception. One of Trump’s Twitter followers said the president wants 6G to run on coal. Other Trump followers said he should forget about 6G and push Silicon Valley for 11G right away.
Dil Bole Oberoi
