Washington should stop politicizing market economy rules

Common sense teaches that a market economy always features openness, fairness and the principle of non-discrimination. However, in recent years, those rules have been largely abused by the United States as a political tool to rake in self-interests in global competition.

The United States always proclaims itself as a champion of market rules. Yet when Washington feels its economic and technological supremacy is under threat, it will invariably choose to bully foreign companies under the pretext of "national security."

Such politicized practice has already become its regular tactics. Late last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced a 1.9 billion-dollar program to reimburse mostly rural U.S. telecom carriers for removing network equipment produced by Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE Corp, citing the platitude of "national security threats."

The move is yet another episode of Washington's smear campaign against Chinese tech companies as there is no solid evidence to support its accusations. The so-called "national security" is no more than a clumsy political cover for its economic bully and protectionist impulses.

What has perplexed James Kail, CEO of LHTC Broadband, is that he has never seen an issue of security threat in Huawei equipment -- not only in the past few months in which such accusations have been heated up by the U.S. government, but also throughout the last five years of partnership with Huawei. Kail's firm offers telephone, TV and Internet services to 7,000 rural locations in the country. And 1,600 of its locations are served with Huawei gear.

In addition, Kail said Huawei's equipment has been "working perfectly fine," with excellent reliability that has seldom necessitated technical support.

If the U.S. administration wants to honor the market rules it advocates, it should let domestic companies make their own decisions on who they want to work with. And in the eyes of many U.S. telecom carriers, companies like Huawei, which can offer high-quality and affordable products, are always ideal partners.

Already, such reckless acts to meddle in the order of market economy as imposing tariffs, fencing off foreign investment and disrupting global supply chains have sparked strong opposition and antipathy in the international community, as well as among U.S. enterprises, amid urgent calls to uphold market rules.

Boeing's Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun in March called on Washington to sort out political issues from trade with China "to encourage a free trade environment between these two economic juggernauts."

Washington's double standards on market rules have clearly testified to its hypocrisy and reckless pursuit of global hegemony in front of the global community. In an age of economic globalization, decoupling and building walls are against the Zeitgeist of today's world, while openness and cooperation should be the wave of the future.

The United States should understand that only by truly following market economy rules can it serve its own interests in the long run. Otherwise, it will shoot itself in the foot.