GREAT POWER PODCAST: Wireless Wars with China

Related Categories: Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare; Democracy and Governance; International Economics and Trade; China

In this episode of GREAT POWER PODCAST, host Michael Sobolik speaks with Jon Pelson, author of Wireless Wars: China's Dangerous Domination of 5G and How We're Fighting Back. The conversation covers Huawei's rise to global dominance of telecommunications, the national security risks that Huawei and other Chinese tech companies pose to democracies like the United States, and how America can regain its footing in its technological competition with the Chinese Communist Party.

Author Biography

Jonathan Pelson joined Lucent Technologies during the telecom boom of the ‘90s, helping create and market some of the company’s breakthrough technology solutions. He later served as the Chief of Convergence Strategy for British Telecom, developing a global wireless plan for the company. During his time with these and other telecom companies, he traveled to China and saw that country’s fledgling telecommunications companies grow and eventually seize the world lead. With deep personal experience in the sector and rare access to the people who ran the world’s largest telecom companies, he decided to investigate how the lead was lost to the Chinese and what we could do to take it back. Jon has a degree in economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.