President Trump reversed America's long-standing stance of engagement by signing an executive order in 2019 to contain the identified threats of Huawei and other high-risk vendors with apparent ties to the Chinese government. The move prohibits U.S. companies from using technology from any company identified as a national threat. Was this the right decision to exclude these vendors from the rollout of 5G in America? The U.S. warned other countries about the threat of backdoors through high-risk vendor equipment. Other allies took heed, performed independent security assessments, and decided to allow these high-risk vendors onto their networks. A few allied nations sided with the United States and took similar actions to ban equipment from high-risk vendors. Internationally, the Chinese government pushed back using the World Trade Organization's ability to enforce international trade standards. Huawei also reacted by filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government alleging the unfair application of the National Defense Authorization Act.

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