Digital Media Discourse on the Blockage of Huawei by the US Government

Abstract

In this globalized world the more focus of powerful states on economic capabilities for the maintenance of their influence and power in the international arena. In the contemporary world, two economic powers of the world are confronted with each other in the field of a trade war. The US is the number one economy of the world and on the other hand, China is supposed to surpass it. The core resentments of the US about China are ideological and political differences; China’s emerging economy is a potential threat to the US hegemony. Recently Trump administration placed Huawei and 70 of its other affiliations companies in the ‘Entity List’ of the US and the allegations were that Huawei Company is a national security threat for the US. Entity List means that the American companies, which are doing business with Huawei, need licenses on the specific terms applied by the US government. The US trying to lobby against Huawei with other democratic industrial democracies like the UK, Germany, and other European countries that not use Huawei’s 5G equipment. On the other hand, China’s company Huawei is making its own 5G network and dealing to sell it to other mobile companies and the European countries are not seems to stand along with the US in this scenario. Past studies have predicted future trade relations. There are several possible reasons behind the ban of Huawei, escalation of a trade war between China and the US, new taxes on Chinese products by the US government, Made in China 2025, Huawei is a national security threat for the US due to lack of data privacy, China’s profitable business of 5G and rise of nationalistic American behavior over the free trade concept. The purpose of this research is to explore the digital media discourse of the US, UK, and China to identify the reason behind the blockade of Huawei by the US government. News articles selected about the ban of Huawei from the US, UK, and Chinese’s digital news webs. With the help of discourse analysis, this research will analyze the concerning phenomenon. The expected results are that Huawei is a national security threat for the U.S.