Color me confused about our 5G technology policy. Today I see this statement: “I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. I want the United States to win through competition, not by blocking out currently more advanced technologies.” That is from a recent set of tweets from our president. He is expected to sign an executive order banning Huawei equipment from domestic cellular carriers before next week. Not to be outdone, Congress is considering HR 4747 that would prevent government agencies from doing business with them.

Huawei seems to be the latest target of badly behaving tech companies, and it has gotten a lot of enemies. Last week our Secretary of State meet with several European leaders, telling them to not purchase any equipment from Huawei in building out their 5G cellular networks. He told them that this gear will make it more difficult for American equipment to operate there.

The fear is that Chinese will embed spying devices in their gear, interfering with communications. Chinese hacking attempts have dramatically risen over the past year, according to this new report from Crowdstrike. While the report didn’t identify Huawei as the source, they did find several hacking attempts aimed specifically at telecom vendors and their government customers.

The US isn’t alone in its fear of Huawei spying. Poland, Italy and Germany are all considering banning their gear from their newer cell networks. Last year, both South Korea and Australia enacted such a ban, and the UK began removing their equipment too. Huawei supplies Australian and UK 4G equipment and BT said last month that they will begin removing that stuff.  A recent news story in The Register stated that Huawei won’t be used to run any new British government networks, even though it will continue to be used in British landline infrastructure.

But is the Chinese government really using Huawei equipment to spy on us? Jason Perlow writes in ZDnet that chances are low, mainly because first there is no concrete proof, and second because it wouldn’t be in their best economic interests. Also, given that you can find Chinese semiconductors in just about everything these days, it would be nearly impossible to effectively ban them.

But there is another confounding reason that no one has mentioned, and that has to do with this law called CALEA. It spells out requirements for telecom suppliers and how they must provide access to government wiretaps and other law enforcement activities from their gear. So technically, not only is Huawei doing this, but all the other telecom vendors have to do so too. If you are with me so far, you see that Huawei is obligated to have this “backdoor” if they want to do business in the USA, yet we are criticizing them for having this very same backdoor! How this will play out in these bans is hard to realize.

A Huawei ban makes no sense. But it won’t stop government agencies from piling on at this stage.