Business activities should not be politicized: China Daily editorial

To politicize the economy is like rendering to Caesar the things that are not Caesar's and to God the things that are not God's. That is what the United States is doing in its attempt to dissuade its European allies from their cooperation with China's telecommunications giant Huawei in their construction of 5G networks.

In the latest move, the US Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to block US telecommunications providers from using federal funds to buy Huawei equipment on the grounds Huawei and ZTE pose national security threats to the US. That the decision was made without any evidence that Huawei poses threat to US national security points to the nature of the vote, which was the politicizing of normal business activities.

In a statement on Saturday, Huawei urged the FCC to reconsider what it called a "profoundly mistaken" decision based on "selective information, innuendo, and mistaken assumptions".

That the vote was political was also highlighted by the FCC proposing that other service providers be required to cancel or replace existing services and equipment from the two Chinese companies.

As former US treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson said in his speech at the New Economy Forum held in Beijing on Nov 20-22, by demonizing Huawei, the US is fracturing the global innovation ecosystem and curtailing "an enormous amount of potentially world changing basic research".

5G network technology will usher in a new age for the closer connection of all things, which will likely bring about a round of technological revolution and thereby greatly promote the development of the world economy.

Models suggest that an increase of 10 percent in the degree of digitalization will lead to an increase in per capita gross domestic product of between 0.5 to 0.62 percent.

What the US is doing to Huawei, the world leader in 5G network technology and equipment, will make it hard for Huawei to cooperate with its Western counterparts to facilitate the development of the new generation networks.

What is even worse is the fact that by politicizing normal business activities in this way, the US is interfering with free trade and fair competition, which are foundations for the globalization of the world economy.

While China is opening its door wider to the world, the US is doing the opposite, blocking US companies from doing business with their Chinese partners.

Obviously Huawei will have difficulties in doing business in such circumstances. But its US partners will have a hard time as well if they cannot continue their cooperation with Huawei and other Chinese firms.

By trying to isolate the world from the world's second-largest economy, the US is actually isolating itself from the world.