High-ranking US security and law enforcement officials gathered in Washington on Thursday for a command conference to raise the alarm on China's tech operations against the US.
US Attorney General Bill Barr warned about China's recent developments in 5G mobile infrastructure creeping into networks around the globe.
Barr touched on current diplomatic frictions between China and the US, decrying what he described as China's ramped up efforts to "dominate" the market of cutting-edge, high-speed wireless communication.
If China establishes full control of 5G, Barr said the country will be able to "dominate the opportunities arising from a stunning array of emerging technologies that would be interwoven with the 5G network."
Barr disclosed in remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' China Initiative conference that, from a national security viewpoint, if the Internet becomes reliant on 5G technology "China would have the power to shut countries off from technologies upon which their consumers and industries depend."
In a broad speech detailing China's various steps to boost its global economic power, Barr described the country as the leading "geopolitical adversary" of the US. He argued that the need for US domination in 5G is like a space race between the Soviet Union and the US, pointing out that China has already cornered 40 percent of the world's existing 5G market.
5G infrastructure networks are intended to provide unprecedented rate of Internet speeds and transform how data are shared across a global economy.
Huawei is the leading manufacturer of telecommunications hardware, but US officials are seeking for ways to prevent its involvement out of worries it could share data with the Chinese authorities or be forced to help with electronic spying. Huawei denies those assertions.
Last November, according to China's state-run news service Xinhua, three of the country's biggest mobile companies rolled out their hyperfast 5G services in 50 of their cities. And, for the first time in history, "the United States is not leading the next technological era," Barr disclosed.
US national security officials recently called on nations like the United Kingdom and France to not use Huawei's technology in its core tech infrastructures, such as 5G internet.
Last week, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against a professor at Harvard University and two Chinese nationals for allegedly lying about their ties with China.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also charged 19 suspects in Chinese-related cases since October, and the US has more than 1,000 ongoing investigations linked to the country's attempted theft of American technology, FBI director Christopher Wray said.
