The New U.S. Plan to Challenge Huawei is Dead on Arrival in Africa

A monitor displays the logo for “Huawei” behind Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington,DC on July 15, 2020. Andrew Harnik / POOL / AFP

The United States is stepping up its efforts to try and contain Chinese tech companies like Huawei with a new development financing program that aims to persuade countries in places like Africa to avoid using equipment made by the telecom giant.

The idea here is to challenge one of Huawei’s key advantages by providing government-backed financing that Washington hopes will convince governments and telecom operators in emerging markets to buy networking equipment made by Finland’s Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson, or South Korea’s Samsung, for example.

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by Eric Olander

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