US diplomats have been touring the world warning other countries that if they do use the Chinese company's equipment, they run the risk of being spied on by Beijing.

美國的外交大使們正在全世界各地忙著警告其他國家：如果用了中國公司的設備，就可能會面臨被北京政府監控的風險。

That's all very well, comes the response, but who do you suggest we use instead?

這些都很有道理，但是美國你認為我們該用誰的產品來代替華為比較好呢？

Huawei is by far the world's biggest and cheapest supplier of 5G equipment.

華為是目前世界上最大且最價格最低廉的 5G 硬體供應商。

And there isn't a single US company that can compete on the product range or the prices being offered.

而現在沒有任何一間美國的企業能夠在產品種類或價格上與華為競爭。

Almost everybody I've spoken to in the Trump administration over the last few months has mentioned this as a serious problem.

過去幾個月來，幾乎每一個我接觸過的川普政府裡的人都指出這是一個嚴重的問題。

And it's clear that discussions are under way to try and rectify it.

很清楚的是關於如何嘗試並改善這個問題的討論都正如火如荼的進行中。

But what can be done to try and create some kind of US or western competitor to the Chinese company?

但是目前究竟有什麼方法可以創造出能夠與中國企業匹敵、來自美國或西方世界的競爭者？

One option that's been explored is to ask big companies like Oracle and Cisco, which already make much of the servers and the routers behind 5G networks, to see if they want to move into the radio communications market as well.

其中一個已經被提出來的選項是問像 Oracle 或 Cisco 這種大公司是否願意在無線電通訊的市場參一腳，而這些大公司早已在 5G 技術背後的伺服器、路由器等部分占了很重要的地位。

However, the response has come back that such a project would simply be too costly and too time consuming.

但是，這些公司目前的回應是這樣的大型計劃所需耗費的金錢和時間成本都太高了。

Another option is to fund American start-ups that are working on the next generation of technology that might be able to supersede what Huawei does.

另一個選項是資助那些正在研發最新科技的美國新創公司，而新的技術也許能夠取代華為的現有技術。

That's all very well, but that is also likely to be a multi-year project.

這聽起來也不錯，但這也同樣是個需要耗費多年才可能完成的計畫。

One intriguing suggestion for the near-term is that the US could funnel money towards Huawei's major competitors.

一個針對短期狀況、且極富吸引力的建議是美國可以將資金注入華為的競爭對手公司。

Even though their two biggest competitors, Nokia and Ericsson, are European, and not American.

雖然華為最大的兩個競爭對手 Nokia 和 Ericsson 是歐洲企業而非美國本土企業。

That would be highly unusual, but it shows how seriously Trump officials are taking the threat of this Chinese company.

這樣的投資可能不太尋常，但這也顯示了川普政府認為來自中國公司的威脅有多麼嚴重。

If you'd like to read more about America's nascent attempts to kick start a telecom industrial strategy, click on this link, just hit in.

如果你想知道更多關於美國對促進電信產業的新嘗試，你可以點這個連結。