China’s tech moguls bet on 5G to help lift economy amid increased security scrutiny in the West

China’s technology titans are looking to leverage the faster online connections and other advanced features from upcoming 5G networks to help boost the domestic economy, as the US and other Western nations assess the risks of the next-generation mobile system and products from telecommunications equipment supplier Huawei Technologies.

Lei Jun, chairman and chief executive of smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp, and Yang Yuanqing, computer maker Lenovo Group’s chairman and chief executive, separately described the potential economic benefits from the roll-out of 5G mobile infrastructure at a panel on Thursday in their role as delegates of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s parliament where major policies are ratified.

“Most people only see 5G’s application in telecommunications and smartphones, but the technology has potential to transform almost every sector from cloud computing, smart cities, autonomous driving to the Internet of Things,” said Lei.

China, the US, Japan and South Korea are the countries now leading the global race to launch commercial 5G mobile services, which are expected to drive more industrial applications over the internet.

Echoing Lei’s comments, Lenovo’s Yang said 5G networks could significantly raise the efficiency of all industries, particularly in manufacturing, as it becomes a pipeline to transport and process huge amounts of data.

Their comments follow the release on Wednesday of a study by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which forecasts the country’s 5G capital spending to range from 900 billion yuan to 1.5 trillion yuan (US$134 billion to US$223 billion) between 2020 and 2025. That infrastructure outlay will be led by telecoms network operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.