16 Leaders The EconomistSeptember 14th 2019
2 ternative sources for most components and it may soon launch a
rival to Android, Google’s smartphone operating-system.
Instead of Huawei’s demise, the tech world faces a split, with
an increasingly self-sufficient Chinese industry active every-
where but America. America and its allies could lag behind in 5g,
because Chinese firms offer cutting-edge technology at the low-
est cost. Replacing existing Huawei gear would be expensive.
Competition would suffer. And if Huawei develops rivals to the
likes of Android it would weaken Western tech firms.
It is right to be wary of Huawei. No Chinese firm can simply
defy the country’s autocratic rulers, especially in matters of na-
tional security. The question is whether there is a mechanism to
mitigate the risks and create trust where little exists. Britain and
Germany have set up monitoring bodies to scrutinise Huawei
products, but that has not impressed American officials.
Now Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s boss, has floated an alternative:
cloning his 5gtechnology “stack” (patents, code, blueprints and
production know-how) and selling it to a Western firm, which
would be free to use it outside China and develop the technology
as it sees fit. Buyers might include Samsung or Ericsson.Telecoms intellectual-property portfolios have been sold be-
fore. Microsoft bought parts of Nokia in 2014, for example. In this
case the buyer would face no competition from Huawei in Amer-
ica, where the Chinese firm does not operate (although it would
need to deal with different spectrum frequencies there). In other
countries the two would go head to head, though it would take
the new competitor years to ramp up manufacturing.
The sale of Huawei’s technology would not guarantee securi-
ty from Chinese spies or saboteurs. Its spooks would remain per-
fectly capable of hacking networks run by Western companies.
But the West would gain safe access to cutting-edge 5gtechnol-
ogies, avoiding roll-out delays. Competition would be enhanced
by a new Western contender or a stronger existing one. The
world might regrettably still have two tech ecosystems, but the
plan might nonetheless help defuse the tech cold war.
The two superpowers are on a dangerous path. If it chooses
escalation, America has one option: to try to put Huawei out of
business outside China, which could spark a gloves-off conflict.
In normal circumstances Mr Ren’s suggestion would be outlan-
dish. In times like these it deserves a hearing. 7“I
t’s timeto stop vaping,” says Lee Norman, a health official in
Kansas. Six people are dead in America, apparently from
smoking e-cigarettes. More than 450 have contracted a serious
lung disease. So Mr Norman’s advice sounds reasonable. The
Centres for Disease Control and the American Medical Associa-
tion agree: the country’s 11m vapers should quit. A new idea is cir-
culating, that vaping is worse than smoking. On September 11th
the Trump administration said it intends to ban non-tobacco fla-
voured vaping fluid (see United States section). Some politicians
want a broader ban on all e-cigarettes.
The facts have gone up in smoke, as so often happens during
health scares. Although more research is needed, the evidence so
far suggests that the recent vaping deaths in
America did not come from products bought in
a shop but from badly made items sold on the
street. In five out of six cases, the tainted vaping
products were bought illicitly; the other in-
volved liquid bought in a legal cannabis shop in
Oregon. One theory is that the vape fluid was
mixed with vitamin E. This is an oil—something
that should not enter the lungs. If inhaled, oil
causes the type of symptoms that the stricken vapers display.
America’s Food and Drug Administration (fda), which is in-
vestigating the products involved, rightly refuses to panic. It
says vapers should not buy products containing cannabis ex-
tract, or those sold on the street. This is sensible. When you buy
an unlicensed liquid from an unregulated supplier, you have no
idea what you are puffing. This is why governments also discour-
age people from drinking moonshine spirits, which are some-
times deadly. In Costa Rica, for example, 25 people recently died
from imbibing hooch contaminated with methanol. However,
just as with alcohol, regulators should draw a distinction be-
tween illicit products and the legal, unadulterated sort.E-cigarettes are not good for you. The vapour that vapers in-
hale is laced with nicotine, which is addictive. Some of the other
chemicals in it may be harmful. But vaping is far less dangerous
than smoking tobacco—a uniquely deadly product. If people
turn to e-cigarettes as a substitute for the conventional sort, the
health benefits are potentially huge. Smoking kills 450,
Americans every year, and a staggering 7m people worldwide.
Anything that weans people off tobacco is likely to save lives.
The big worry about e-cigarettes is that they will create a new
generation of nicotine addicts. Some people who have never pre-
viously smoked have taken up vaping, including a worrying
number of children. In America, for example, one quarter of
high-school pupils vape.
This is alarming, and helps explain why so
many governments, such as those of Egypt,
Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan and Brazil, have
banned e-cigarettes. They should not. Prohibi-
tion usually causes more harm than good. For-
bidding e-cigarettes will lead vapers to buy illic-
it products—the type that are far more likely to
poison them. It will also deter many law-abid-
ing smokers from switching to something less deadly.
For these reasons, regulating vaping is wiser than trying to
eliminate it. Governments should carefully control what goes
into vape fluid, following the example of the European Union,
which restricts the amount of nicotine it may contain. America’s
fda, by contrast, seems constantly to change its mind about how
to regulate vaping. Governments should also regulate how e-cig-
arettes are advertised. Marketing aimed at children is obviously
unacceptable. So, perhaps, are fruity flavours that appeal espe-
cially to young palates. Government health warnings should be
clear and measured. Vaping may be a dangerous habit, but it is
vastly less deadly than lighting up. 7Don’t panic
Adulterated vaping fluid appears to be killing people. That is no reason to ban all e-cigarettesE-cigarettes