As a huge catalyst of the ongoing China-U.S. tradewar, the Chinese 5G company Huawei has recently been getting a lot of unfavorable attention from around the world. After it was suspected that Huawei’s technology may have security loopholes that could potentially allow the stealing of information from the United States by those under the company, the United States government has officially banned Huawei 5G technology. This alone being a huge blow to the company (considering how huge of a market they lost through this ban), the United States has been taking further actions to persuade allies, such as countries in the EU, to also adopt similar bans. However, recent developments reflect that these efforts are not working.

On March 22nd, Reuters reported that the EU has decided to take definitive measures to assess the security risks imposed by Huawei technology. While they are not planning to ban the technology as the U.S. advised, they have run exhaustive tests and already found major “flaws” in manufacturing. A British report released on March 28th reported to have found flaws in the software and security of various telecommunications equipment manufactured by Huawei, that could have potentially allowed foreign institutions to hack and steal sensitive information, thus endangering the security of the nation.

“If I could, I would buy a Huawei laptop. They make very high quality devices. Even despite all of this negative press, there have been great reviews about low-light camera quality, for instance, posted online,” said Yanran Kuang ’19.

Yet despite these efforts, many U.S. allies have not yet given in to the Trump administration’s efforts to have them adopt a Huawei ban like the one the U.S. did. So far, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan are the only countries that have adopted a ban. Many EU countries have shown greater resistance to U.S. efforts, such as Germany. “We are defining our standards for ourselves,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But do these devices pose an actual threat, even to the common Joe? “If I could, I would buy a Huawei laptop. They make very high quality devices. Even despite all of this negative press, there have been great reviews about low-light camera quality, for instance, posted online,” said Yanran Kuang ’19. On the flip side, Joyce Lin ’19 has different thoughts. “I feel that even if it’s a great piece of technology, it isn’t worth risking your privacy, even more, the security of the whole nation. For some good technology that’s a high price to pay. I wouldn’t risk it,” she said.

A question arises — even if Huawei’s devices are not safe, is it worth banning all Huawei devices entirely? Considering the political and economic implications of such a definitive ban, and seeing the effectiveness of the Trump administration’s campaign so far, it is a question worth pondering. “The Trump administration’s course of action is definitive, but extreme. Maybe the European countries are right in considering this situation slowly, and tending towards regulations rather than an outright ban. Huawei isn’t some no-name company. It’s a pretty big deal,” said Lin Zhang ’19.