File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 11, 2019. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

US President Donald Trump sent a letter on Monday to the 2019 World Radio-communication Conference in Egypt, claiming that the US will only cooperate with "like-minded" nations on 5G networks. 

Trump's letter, which was presumably written by a political protégé or an advisor who is wary of Chinese companies' 5G advantages, defined China as a country that "would use 5G as a tool to expand control of their own citizens." The letter is full of political allegations and prejudices. 

Trump is no tech wizard. He does not believe in global warming. He is probably oblivious to the truth that 5G brings 10-100 times faster broadband than 4G, and that the greater mobile speed will be able to link all machines and help facilitate the birth of the Internet of Things (IoT) - ushering in a new age of technological progress. 

Huawei, thanks to its painstaking research and development, has garnered the most patents in 5G and churned out the most advanced 5G base stations. To hold the company back, the Trump administration has placed the Chinese company on a trade ban blacklist, and pressed other nations not to grant Huawei access to their market. Trump and his men have had numerous phone calls with foreign leaders, to urge them to shun Huawei's 5G equipment. 

However, Washington has been snubbed nearly everywhere, because nobody is willing to buy mediocre technologies and ruin their countries' future. The majority of European countries have signed 5G contracts with Huawei, including the UK, which is preparing to grant Huawei access to its 5G rollout. 

An industry advisory group says Huawei's current 65 contracts are more than the combined 5G contracts for Nokia and Ericsson, the other major telecom gear makers whose businesses are predominantly based in North America. 

Owing to surging development costs stemming from reportedly difficult 5G software renewals, shares in Nokia have plummeted recently, and Moody's decided to downgrade Nokia to Ba2 because of the company's "increased margin pressure in mobile access business and additional investment cost to support its competitive position in the upcoming 5G cycle." 

Ericsson is not doing much better than Nokia. "We have not won anything against Huawei due to geopolitics (played by Washington)," said a senior Ericsson executive recently. 

In the end, where will the Trump administration find "like-minded" nations regarding 5G networks? The US needs to increase its own efforts. 

The author is an editor with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn