The driver of global division is, or will soon be, technology.
Adoption of particular technologies — reflected to some degree in brands, but more importantly standards — will determine with which side a country aligns itself. Six years ago, experts warned of a digital iron curtain descending; my metaphor is barbells — two spheres of economic activity, the connections between them increasingly slim.
We got a glimpse of that future when the United States demanded that its allies and trusted partners refuse to put Huawei’s 5G equipment in their national telecommunications stack. U.S. administrations warned that the company was an extension of the Chinese Communist Party, either a willing accomplice or unable to resist the commands of the Beijing government. One way or another, the company would tap or steal the information traversing its networks or sabotage the organizations using them.