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<div
>https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-internet-divided-between-the-u-s-an<span
></span>d-china-has-become-a-battleground-11549688420</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>The Internet, Divided Between the U.S. and China, Has Become a
Battleground</b></div>
<div><i><br></i></div>
<div><i>As China and the West race for 5G dominance, two digital
powers with very different approaches to technology are staking out
their corners</i></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The global internet is splitting in two.<br>
<br>
One side, championed in China, is a digital landscape where mobile<br>
payments have replaced cash. Smartphones are the devices that
matter,<br>
and users can shop, chat, bank and surf the web with one app. The<br>
downsides: The government reigns absolute, and it is watching-you
may<br>
have to communicate with friends in code. And don't expect to
access<br>
Google or Facebook.<br>
<br>
On the other side, in much of the world, the internet is open to
all.<br>
Users can say what they want, mostly, and web developers can roll
out<br>
pretty much anything. People accustomed to China's version complain
this<br>
other internet can seem clunky. You must toggle among apps to
chat,<br>
shop, bank and surf the web. Some websites still don't seem to
be<br>
designed with smartphones in mind.<br>
<br>
The two zones are beginning to clash with the advent of the
superfast<br>
new generation of mobile technology called 5G. China aims to be
the<br>
biggest provider of gear underlying the networks, and along with that
it<br>
is pushing client countries to adopt its approach to the
web-essentially<br>
urging some to use versions of the "Great Firewall" that Beijing
uses to<br>
control its internet and contain the West's influence.<br>
<br>
Battles are popping up around the world as Chinese tech giants try
to<br>
use their market power at home to expand abroad, something
they've<br>
largely failed to do so far.<br>
<br>
Some Silicon Valley executives worry the divergence risks giving
Chinese<br>
companies an advantage in new technologies such as artificial<br>
intelligence, partly because they face fewer restrictions over
privacy<br>
and data protection.<br>
<br>
"The Chinese approach could well lead to some large-scale
improvements<br>
like better health outcomes-benefits derived from the mass capture
and<br>
analysis of data," said Nick Clegg, the former British deputy
prime<br>
minister whom Facebook Inc. hired to run its global policy and<br>
communications, in a Brussels speech last week. "But it could
equally be<br>
put to more sinister surveillance ends."<br>
<br>
"The real choice," he said, "is between an appropriately
regulated tech<br>
sector, balancing the priorities of privacy, free speech, innovation
and<br>
scale-and an alternative in which ingenuity runs roughshod over
some<br>
basic guarantees of privacy and individual rights." He and
Facebook<br>
declined to comment further.<br>
<br>
The divide is clear to people like Tom Pellman who straddle it.
Mr.<br>
Pellman, a director in Washington, D.C., for an international risk<br>
advisory firm, spent a decade in Beijing from the mid-2000s. His
company<br>
doesn't use Slack, the messaging app, because China has blocked it.
He<br>
circumvented the Great Firewall by cycling through virtual private<br>
networks, or VPNs, which can disguise activity from monitors until<br>
getting discovered and then blocked, he said. "It's
Whac-A-Mole."<br>
<br>
Beijing's censorship is like its polluted air, he said: "You're
in it<br>
and it seems OK, then you leave and you realize how bad it was."<br>
<br>
Yet he loved WeChat, the app that can do multiple tasks, and missed
it<br>
when he left China. "When I came back to the U.S. it was like
coming<br>
back to the Stone Age," he said. "Not being able to use WeChat
,<br>
everything felt just old fashioned."<br>
<br>
These parallel universes have coexisted. In one, people buy goods
on<br>
Amazon; in the other, it's Alibaba. In the West, Alphabet Inc.'s
Google<br>
is so popular it's a verb, but you can't Google in
China-there's Baidu<br>
for that. In London, Apple Pay can get you on the Tube; in Beijing,
it's<br>
Alipay. To do all this in one app in China, there's WeChat, which
lets a<br>
billion people also send texts, hail cabs and do many other tasks.<br>
Net Benefits<br>
U.S. internet giants still post more revenue than those in China,
whose</div>
<div>user numbers benefit from the nation's huge population<br>
<br>
Beijing has blocked Google, Facebook and other services, promoting<br>
domestic champions such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and WeChat
owner<br>
Tencent Holdings Ltd. Outside China, though, these giants haven't
had<br>
much success.<br>
The 5G collision<br>
<br>
The collision of these universes as 5G arrives is exacerbating
conflict<br>
between the U.S. and China and could broaden the rift and drive more
of<br>
the world into China's cyberspace model.<br>
<br>
Networks using 5G technology are expected to download movies on
phones<br>
in seconds, help enable self-driving cars, and connect components<br>
ranging from pacemakers to factory machines to the internet.
Military<br>
futurists say 5G may alter battlefields, connecting tanks and
drones<br>
with artificial intelligence.<br>
<br>
China is aiming to expand its zone with 5G. It is aggressively
promoting<br>
5G networks, establishing a body in 2013 composed of regulators,<br>
companies and scientists to design and control every aspect of the<br>
process. It built a state facility where anyone selling 5G equipment
in<br>
China must test it.<br>
<br>
China's 5G goal is to "win primacy," said China's leading
proponent of<br>
the effort, Wu Hequan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, last
month,<br>
according to a transcript conference organizers posted. The
government's<br>
information office and the Cyberspace Administration, an internet<br>
regulator, didn't respond to requests for comment.<br>
<br>
That Chinese challenge has suddenly come to the fore because one
giant<br>
has leapt the divide between the parallel universes. Huawei
Technologies<br>
Co. is now the world's biggest supplier of the equipment that goes
into<br>
mobile-computing networks.<br>
<br>
The 5G equipment itself won't tilt the playing field-the gear is
the<br>
plumbing of the internet, based on global standards that are agnostic
as<br>
to what web developers and users run on it.<br>
<br>
But many in Washington, from Congress to members of the<br>
national-security and intelligence communities, warn that
Huawei's<br>
Chinese ownership means Beijing could use the gear to spy on the
world<br>
and more broadly be a camel's nose under the tent to expand its
influence.<br>
<br>
Huawei has publicly rejected the accusations. Founder Ren Zhengfei in
a<br>
media appearance last month said "I personally would never harm
the<br>
interest of my customersŠAnd my company would not answer to such
requests."<br>
<br>
Chinese officials and cybersecurity experts point to former
National<br>
Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's allegations the
agency<br>
installed surveillance backdoors in U.S.-made routers designated
for<br>
export. The NSA didn't respond to requests for comment. In the past,
it<br>
has said in response that it takes care to ensure that innocent users
of<br>
such technologies aren't affected by U.S. intelligence
gathering.<br>
<br>
The U.S. has also accused Huawei of stealing trade secrets and
violating<br>
sanctions, raising the possibility the Trump administration could
cut<br>
its access to critical U.S.-made components. Huawei denies
wrongdoing.<br>
<br>
If that happens, said Paul Triolo, a former federal government
analyst<br>
who heads up global technology research at risk consulting firm
Eurasia<br>
Group, China could build a version of 5G that isn't compatible with
the<br>
U.S. network. "If the global supply chain for 5G really falls
apart," he<br>
said, "we would be in totally new territory."<br>
<br>
Huawei Deputy Chairman Ken Hu said it has amassed 13,000 suppliers
and<br>
that: "If any link in this global industry chain is obstructed in
an<br>
unusual way, that would have major impact on the development of
the<br>
industry chain and even the economic development of countries
involved."<br>
Huawei declined to comment further for this article.<br>
<br>
Deploying 5G widely at home before the West does could benefit
Chinese<br>
tech companies, said David Chao, general partner at DCM Ventures,
a<br>
Silicon Valley venture-capital firm that invests in China. Chinese<br>
companies could have a leg up by using their huge domestic market
to<br>
develop new apps and hardware that flourish with the faster speeds.
"It<br>
could sprout a whole generation of mobile services that take
advantage<br>
of that," he said, "and they may be exported to the western
world."</div>
<div><br>
At the heart of the divide are differing views on how to manage
the<br>
internet. The U.S. pushes the open model on which the internet was<br>
built. Beijing and like-minded countries such as Russia say states<br>
should be able to censor, spy on or otherwise control internet
traffic<br>
within their borders.<br>
<br>
Beijing has sold its internet model alongside Chinese-made telecom<br>
equipment in countries as distant as Vietnam and Tanzania as part of
an<br>
effort to build what it calls a "Digital Silk Road." Last
year,<br>
Tanzanian officials followed up public praise for Chinese internet<br>
censorship by approving rules that threaten online content
providers<br>
with fines and jail if they don't take down "prohibited content"
at<br>
government request.<br>
<br>
Tanzanian information minister Harrison Mwakyembe said the
government<br>
backs China's vision of strict internet policing to protect
national<br>
security and to prevent "moral degeneration."<br>
<br>
Government officials in India have been considering ways to
shelter<br>
domestic tech firms from American companies such as Amazon.com Inc.
and<br>
Facebook, much as China has protected its own startups. India's
telecom<br>
secretary, Aruna Sundararajan, said the idea is to promote Indian<br>
companies "to become global champions."<br>
<br>
To promote its notion of "cyber sovereignty," China has lobbied at
the<br>
United Nations for discussion of internet regulation to be limited
to<br>
states, with industry and civil society relegated to the sidelines.
In<br>
2017 at a conference in China attended by Apple CEO Tim Cook and
Google<br>
chief Sundar Pichai, the Communist Party's top official in charge
of<br>
ideology and propaganda, Wang Huning, praised Chinese President Xi<br>
Jinping for advancing China's vision of the internet, saying it
had<br>
"gained broad approval and positive responses from international
society."<br>
<br>
At first, with the internet's spread, foreign companies were welcome
in<br>
China and technology evolved faster than the government's
censorship<br>
capabilities. Google rolled out a censored Chinese-language version
of<br>
its search engine. Amazon entered the market, and Chinese users
flooded<br>
onto Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.<br>
<br>
Chinese leaders took more control after the 2008 Beijing Olympics,<br>
reflecting fear of political dissent and concern Chinese businesses
were<br>
struggling to compete online. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were
blocked<br>
in 2009. The next year, Google said it was no longer willing to
censor<br>
search results, and it was blocked. The websites of several foreign
news<br>
organizations, including The Wall Street Journal's, are also
blocked.<br>
<br>
That left China's search market to Baidu Inc. Alibaba vanquished
eBay<br>
Inc., and its Alipay payment system gave it a lock on online
payments,<br>
with foreign firms from PayPal Holdings Inc. to Visa Inc. blocked
from<br>
providing payment services.<br>
<br>
Outside China, Alibaba was an afterthought in many markets. Baidu
shut<br>
down search engines in Japan and Egypt after investing in
local-language<br>
products. An Alibaba spokeswoman said the company remains "fully<br>
committed to realizing our mission of making it easy to do
business<br>
anywhere in this digital era." A Baidu spokeswoman said the
company<br>
still provides advertising and other services in Japan.<br>
<br>
Despite an aggressive marketing push featuring celebrities such as<br>
soccer star Lionel Messi, Tencent has struggled to expand WeChat<br>
overseas. Since January 2012, WeChat has been downloaded about 350<br>
million times from Apple's App store world-wide, according to
research<br>
firm Sensor Tower Inc. About 83% of those downloads come from users
in<br>
China and 17% from outside, according to Sensor Tower. Tencent
didn't<br>
respond to requests for comment.<br>
<br>
Some Chinese tech champions have struggled overseas because they
came<br>
late to markets where competitors such as Google and Facebook have
a<br>
foothold.<br>
<br>
Another factor is suspicion the companies may have links to the<br>
Communist Party. Ant Financial Services Group, owned by Alibaba
founder<br>
Jack Ma, made a 2017 bid to enter North American financial services
by<br>
acquiring Texas-based MoneyGram International Inc. The Committee
on<br>
Foreign Investment in the U.S. rejected the deal last year. It
also</div>
<div>blocked Broadcom Inc.'s planned purchase of Qualcomm Inc.,
citing<br>
concerns it would weaken Qualcomm, a major competitor to Huawei in
5G<br>
patents.<br>
<br>
In September, Mr. Ma recanted a pledge to create a million U.S.
jobs,<br>
citing trade hostilities. He didn't respond to a request for
comment<br>
sent through Alibaba, which pointed to an interview Mr. Ma did in
which<br>
he said "trade should be a propeller of peace."<br>
<br>
Washington's effort to push back on the equipment side started
years<br>
ago. It blacklisted Huawei and China's rival ZTE Corp. in 2012, when
the<br>
House intelligence committee concluded they weren't free of
Beijing's<br>
influence. ZTE and Huawei have repeatedly said they aren't a threat.
The<br>
U.S. pushback escalated last month with a U.S. indictment against<br>
Huawei's chief financial officer for allegedly playing a role in<br>
breaking Iran sanctions. Separately, prosecutors accused Huawei of<br>
stealing trade secrets. Huawei has denied wrongdoing in both cases
and<br>
said it was unaware of any wrongdoing by the CFO, who has denied
the<br>
allegations.<br>
<br>
Europe's eastern flank is a particular battleground. In December,
the<br>
Czech Republic's top cybersecurity agency warned that sensitive
data<br>
probably shouldn't be carried over Huawei gear. But the
country's<br>
president, Milos Zeman, has criticized those findings. Last month,
he<br>
took two senior Huawei executives on a tour of Prague's castle and
in a<br>
televised interview called Huawei spying allegations hysteria. His
prime<br>
minister, Andrej Babis, has taken a differing view, saying Czech<br>
agencies and European Union leaders should take such allegations<br>
seriously. A spokesman for Mr. Babis confirmed his views. Mr.
Zeman's<br>
office declined to comment.<br>
<br>
For now, motivated consumers in China can span the two internet
worlds<br>
using workarounds such as smartphones with foreign SIM cards that<br>
connect to the outside internet, said Li Zhen, a Hong Kong<br>
market-research analyst who travels to China for business.<br>
<br>
She senses the rift in the paranoia her Chinese contacts exhibit
while<br>
talking on WeChat about potentially sensitive topics. "My friends in
the<br>
government and media will talk in code, and it can take a long time
to<br>
figure out what they're saying," she said. "Sometimes the topic
is<br>
probably not so sensitive, but you never know."<br>
<br>
-Stu Woo, Drew Hinshaw, Sam Schechner, Joe Parkinson and Eliot
Brown</div>
<div>contributed to this article.</div>
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