This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 27, 2019 - June 2, 2019

Heard about the US blacklist on Huawei yet? Bummer, yes. Soon, you won’t have Google Android anymore for that Huawei phone I bought for you last year.

No, don’t sulk. What’s another month’s pay? Your friends switch phones every two years! Even without the Android ban, that Huawei device you have will soon be passé anyway. Maybe you can get an iPhone or a US$4,000 Samsung Galaxy Fold next.

Yes, I’ve heard that the two companies purposely slow down the operations of their older phones. Huawei beat them both in sales last year. So, yes, I am implying — no, my Huawei has not slowed down yet — if Samsung and Apple do it, Huawei will definitely do the same thing. But Italy only fined Apple and Samsung because it could not catch Huawei red-handed, right?

I mean, look at why Huawei was put on the US Entity List. Threat to national security? Was it spying through its devices? Working too closely with the Chinese government?

Well, good riddance, then! Businesses should serve me, the customer, not the government. No, US companies wouldn’t invade our user privacy or be a threat to our national security. Come on.

They might record your physical whereabouts, scan your emails, block your illegal downloads, retain your facial features for identification and keep your search history and your voice and video messages — forever — but they wouldn’t spy on us.

To US companies, data privacy and security are high on the agenda. Type [“parent directory” index of /] on your browser with the latest Game of Thrones episode you want to download, and you will see. Hacking is never allowed, except when it’s “Google Hacking”.

If Google or Facebook or Apple were to work closely with the US government to the point that private data is breached, people would definitely boycott them. They would be crazy not to!

The end-to-end message encryption by Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp is testament to that. What? WhatsApp messages can be hacked without the need for decryption? Sounds like a fake conspiracy to me, so let me Google it ... okay.

Hmm, maybe we can get a BlackBerry for you … What a loss. I guess we won’t have the chance to get Huawei’s latest phone. Yes, that one with the 50-times camera zoom that would severely hurt the iPhone’s ego. Maybe that is the reason behind the ban.

Or that global 5G roll-out. How can I call America great if it loses the 5G race before it even gets started? The US will miss an opportunity to create three million jobs and generate US$500 billion in GDP if it loses the race to China.

But wait, who is representing the US in this race again?

Still, the blacklist is a no-brainer. It’s all Chinese tech everywhere else. Alibaba’s City Brain is powering Malaysia’s smart city initiative in the Klang Valley. Maxis is collaborating with Huawei for the 5G pilot here as well. Your friendly neighbourhood Google is not even available in China, on the contrary. Maybe it is time to cut down on our Chinese gear.

But hold on. Does Chinese gear include iPhones? Aren’t they practically made in China? Is the iPhone’s security being breached as well? This doesn’t leave us with much choice, does it? I had an iPhone before Huawei. Switching to Huawei was my best decision ever — until last week.

Well, Huawei is developing its own operating system that is compatible with Android apps. Will another Donald Trump executive order come flying?

Huawei’s European vice-president Abraham Liu called the move “bullying by the US administration”. From the looks of it, Huawei needs to stand up against this bully. You and I? I’m not too sure.

In the UK, Huawei’s exit will include existing 4G platforms that future 5G tech will piggyback on. That’s some big shoes to fill and it might buy just enough time, maybe two to three years, for everyone else to catch up with Huawei’s 5G tech, which its founder has said is two to three years ahead of everyone else’s.

One thing I’m sure of is that you and I won’t need any 5G in those few years. I need time to save to get you the Huawei replacement, apart from a slew of Internet of Things devices at home to benefit from the 5G roll-out!

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