Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden gave the G-7 what has been referred to as a “wake-up call” to defend human rights in the face of China’s rising global influence. At the group’s summit in England, he introduced the Build Back Better World (B3W) Partnership, a global infrastructure plan that seeks to mobilize investments for low- and middle-income countries in four major areas: climate, health and health security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality. The plan is a more equitable and sustainable alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s foreign development strategy that has already reached more than 70 countries. As the plan indicates, G-7 member countries can no longer ignore the risks that China’s infrastructure technology poses to human rights, individual security, and democracy worldwide.
Biden’s plan is an important step to combating China’s rising influence. But it needs to prioritize technology more, especially 5G, which is carrying the world into the next era of the internet. The B3W plan doesn’t explicitly mention 5G, even though that technology is beginning to transform how we communicate and live by expanding information access, automating everyday services, and advancing smart cities and policing. Essentially, 5G has the power to affect all four areas of the B3W plan, and how it is built, used, and governed can tip the scales in favor of authoritarianism or democracy in any given country. The G-7 should recognize 5G’s power—and the risks it poses in the wrong hands—by making 5G a central thread that ties its infrastructure plan together and promoting it in B3W.
