Rise of Techno-Nationalism
During Donald Trump’s tenure, there was a big fight between the US and China about Huawei , the Chinese telecom equipment (and smartphone) manufacturer. The West was worried that if Huawei equipment grabbed the largest share of the upcoming 5G market, then China could insert malware and spyware in telecom networks all over the world… The West would know. As Anirudh Suri writes in The Great Tech Game , in the 19 th and 20 th centuries, Britain had the monopoly over “telegraph communication network” across the world. Progressively, physical infrastructure monopoly had resulted in a monopoly over the raw materials needed for telegraph cables. As Britain became the #1 player in telegraph systems, it was cheaper and more economical for other countries to use British systems. With ever larger systems under their control, British expertise at laying cables and repairing these systems became better. It had become a circle that reinforced British dominance over telegraph systems ac...