Photo: IC

With China's three telecom operators jointly announcing the launch of 5G commercial services at the PT Expo China 2019 on Thursday, 5G technology is entering the lives of ordinary Chinese. This is widely considered a milestone. Some analysts believe the revolutionary changes that 5G would bring to production and lifestyle are comparable to those brought by steam engines and electricity. 

However, just one day earlier, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed two 5G-related bills, which was interpreted as an attempt to cope with China's growing influence on 5G networks and standard-setting. While China is keen on developing 5G, the US is busy guarding against China. This is abnormal in global competition, which reflects the increasingly distorted and unhealthy mentality of the US. But this has failed to impede China's 5G development. However, the US, obsessed with the hysteria of containing China, has repeatedly missed its chance to lead the 5G race.  

The US and China have different attitudes toward 5G, which leads to different results. China views 5G as something to be used to serve development. It never thinks about using the technology to seek hegemony, but attaches more importance on how to apply it to facilitate people's lives as well as promote social progress and economic development. The Americans, however, are stuck in the mind-set of geopolitical competition and don't believe their Chinese counterparts are different. They are narrow-minded. Their biggest problem is they are doing it to seek hegemony. Their policies are not based on the technology itself, and they show no respect to the laws of technological and economic development. 

Such narrow-minded zero sum thinking conflicts with the inherent open nature of 5G technology. As a result, China is leading in 5G development. If the US always opts for dirty tricks against China instead of how to conduct healthy competition with China and develop its own 5G based on the technological achievements China has made, this will lead to nothing but a larger gap between China and the US.  

Americans have probably forgotten that the US became a superpower simply because it had seized the opportunities brought about by technological innovation and used technological development to boost its national strength and improve the well-being of the American people. Now, Washington considers hegemony its ultimate goal.   

The technological revolution is not a linear process. If a country can lead a technological revolution, it will be able to make a leapfrog development. The UK seized the opportunity of the Industrial Revolution driven with the steam engine. The US seized the opportunity of the revolution sparked by the internal combustion engine. If a major country cannot realize constant innovation and self-revolution, it will only limit its own progress, and will waste its previous successes. 

The US is putting chains on itself. While US 5G technology lags behind, it is absurd for it to reject China's advanced technology. 

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said China will establish 130,000 5G base stations by the end of the year, covering areas including Beijing and Shanghai. 

China will not stop and wait for the US. But it sincerely welcomes the US to catch up in an appropriate way and jointly change the world with China. If the US continues to play tricks, it will only make others look down upon it.