In the coming years, there's going to be two internets. One that's controlled by the United States and one that's controlled by China. But don't take my word for it. That idea is echoed by Eric Schmidt, the head of Google. He said at a private event back in September that this will most likely happen sometime in the next ten years.
But what would a world split between Chinese and U.S. internets look like? A world that the experts are saying will be here in less than a decade. You've heard about China's Orwellian Social Credit system, where the government can lock its people out of everything from buying a house, getting a job, going to school, taking a flight or riding public transportation… all because its AI algorithm deemed their behavior out of step with the state. Now some would say… "yeah but that's just in China." Well what happens when Chinese controlled internet blankets half the world? They'd say… "want access to our internet, our economy and our technology… well you gotta play by our rules on our system."
RELATED: New patents reveal Google is on a mission to spy on you
China is currently working on its "Belt and Road" Initiative to effectively recreate the old Silk Road days when China dominated the known world's economy. It currently involves over sixty countries. But whereas the old Silk Road traded in spices and silk, the new one will be dominated by the flows of ones and zeroes. The internet will be the top economic driver going forward, and there is currently a war being raged to see who dominates the flow of information. It used to be a silent war, but the gloves are now coming off.
Forget about all the trade deficit mumbo jumbo. And the tariffs? That's not going to do a dang thing except make things harder for everyone. All of that is smoke and mirrors for what's actually starting right now. President Trump's talk of the trade deficit took most of the media coverage, but the real danger is what he has pointed out about Chinese theft of U.S. company trade secrets. The Chinese government has sanctioned full on state controlled corporate espionage. They're stealing everything they can get their hands on.
It's an all out race to be the global leader in 5G technology.
It's an all out race to be the global leader in 5G technology. 5G will be more than just phone calls and text messages, it'll power literally everything for the next several decades. Cars, homes, medical devices, farm equipment, manufacturing warehouses… everything, and it'll all be wireless. The race to 5G is a national security imperative. It's why we're now seeing the Trump administration make moves that we would have never even dreamed of making in the past. It's why they had a Huawei executive arrested in Canada.
It's why we blacklisted ZTE a few months ago. Both companies are leading China's 5G expansion. These won't be the final moves, it's going to get a lot crazier. This is a war, and - unless you want a Chinese controlled Social Credit system - it's a war we have to win.
Morningstar via Investopedia