How the Clean Network Changed the Future of Global Technology Competition

The Chinese telecom giant Huawei and other Chinese telecom firms, like ZTE, had been poised to lead the globe in 5G technology—until the U.S. State Department embarked on a global campaign to challenge the market dominance of Chinese firms with the Clean Network program. Did that initiative create a new era of multilateral, democratic governance of the internet, or a “splinternet” forcing participants to choose between the U.S. and China?