A Research On EU’s Position And Countermeasures On Sino-US 5G Competition

With the development and application of emerging technologies such as 5G,artificial intelligence,and quantum computing,more and more countries have realized the significance of these technologies to international relations,and technological competition has become increasingly fierce.The 5G competition between China and the U.S.is both a product of technological politicization and a result of strategic changes in Sino-U.S.relations.With the development of emerging technologies such as 5G,China is striving to achieve a "curve beyond" over US technology.Faced with such situation,the United States believes that its own information,technology,market,and industrial chain are all subject to "security threats." As a result,the United States first hinders and interferes with specific Chinese technology companies in terms of economy and trade,and then suppresses administrative power,and finally rose to the indiscriminate targeting of Chinese technology companies by legislative means.In the process,the United States also gradually felt "powerless" and tried to unite other countries within global scale.In the global 5G technology and market map,there is a force that cannot be ignored besides China and the United States-the European Union.The EU has a huge population size advantage and 5G technical strength represented by Ericsson and Nokia,which makes its position in the 5G competition between China and the United States particularly important.The EU’s position changes dynamically under the combined action of various internal and external factors,which can be divided into three stages.The first stage is before 2018.At this time,the 5G competition between China and the United States is still limited within the two countries,and the EU also tries to avoid getting involved.It is less responsive to the behavior of the United States in words,and maintains cooperation with Chinese technology companies in actions.2018-2019 is a stage of "limited neutrality".The increase in external pressure has triggered changes in the EU’s internal forces.Although the EU has not expressed an absolute ban on 5G from China,it has expressed concerns about related security risks within the market framework.2020 has been "active and purposeful neutrality" so far,and the EU hopes to develop its own "digital sovereignty" by taking advantage of the 5G competition between China and the United States.The factors affecting the EU’s position are multiple and complex,including the maintenance and pursuit of the EU’s 5G security and economic interests,the maintenance of its traditional political principles and values,and the compromise of internal member states’ opposition and centrifugal tendencies,and externally including the pressure from the United States and changes in US-EU relations during the Trump administration,China’s own challenges and opportunities to the EU,and the global public health emergency-outbreak of COVID-19.These factors do not function independently,but overlap and influence each other.In the face of global 5G competition,the EU promotes the construction of "digital sovereignty" internally,leads the formulation of rules at the EU level,strengthens technical supervision,strengthens position coordination and cooperation at the member state level,and enhances its own 5G capabilities at the technical level.Extensive cooperation with other countries is carried out externally.Even in the face of 5G competition brought by China and the United States,the EU is also exploring space for cooperation and development with the two countries.