Boris Johnson decided to cancel his March trip to Washington. Johnson planned to meet President Trump to discuss trade and other issues during that visit, but his plans changes after Mr. Trump lost his cool during a recent phone conversation. The phone conversation ended when Trump abruptly hung up while Boris tried to explain his decision to use Huawei to build parts of the UK’s 5G cellular network.
President Trump is on a mission to dethrone Huawei as the king of 5G technology. Mike Pompeo, Mark Esper, and Bill Barr continue to use their power and influence to bring down Huawei. Pompeo and Esper went to the Munich conference to find European tech companies willing to join the U.S. in Trump’s plan to destroy Huawei.
The U.S. wants a tech partner, or partners, that has enough 5G knowledge so the U.S. can go toe-to-toe with the giant Chinese tech company. Pompeo wants to build a tech ecosystem that is strong enough to challenge Huawei, but not all European countries think Trump’s spying claim is true.
The Department of Justice indicted Huawei on racketeering charges last week, and Attorney General Bill Barr continues to bash Huawei without producing evidence of spying. Mr. Trump told the press Huawei has backdoor technology that allows the company to spy on any network, but Ren Zhengfei said the backdoor technology is only for law enforcement use.
Ren said the company doesn’t use that technology to spy for the Chinese government. Mark Zuckerberg and other tech executives let Trump know they won’t develop backdoor capabilities even though Trump and other law enforcement officials want to use a similar system.
Cases of the coronavirus passed 60,000 in China last week. Economists believe China’s Gross Domestic Product growth will fall by at least 2.0% in the first quarter. Some economists claim GDP growth could slip below 3.0% due to the virus and the trade war.
U.S. exporters in more than 30 states took a tariff beating in 2019. Exports to China dropped by $107 billion. Exports from Alabama, Florida, and Texas dropped 25% thanks to the tariff war, but exports from North Carolina increased thanks to the pharmaceutical drug exports to China. Texas endured a 34% drop in exports to China thanks to a 5% increase in exports to other countries. Exports from the state of Washington fell by more than 40% due to the 737 Max debacle.
Dil Bole Oberoi
