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Lena Li had high hopes when she arrived in Australia from China to study telecommunications engineering.

Her impression was that Australia, where wi-fi was invented,was an "advanced" countryat the cutting edge of technology.

But it wasn't what she expected.

"When I video call my parents on WeChat, it would say that the quality of the internet is not good on the screen, and then on my mum's end, it would say the other party's internet connection is poor," the 25-year-old graduate told the ABC's China Tonight.

"In our Chinese international student circle, we often joke about the internet in Australiawe sayit's'turtle' speed."

While Australia's 5G mobile network rollout is still in its infancy, China has announcedits 6G will be readyfor commercial usein nine years, according to an industry white paper released earlierthis month.

Ms Li wanted to work for Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei in Australia,but itwasbanned from supplying Australia's 5G equipment over national security concerns.

Now the company is reportedly sendingtwo satellites next monthto test its potential6G technology.

Buttraditional technological superpowers, like the United States, arereclaiming lost ground by passing newlaws and pouring record money into scientific research to try and stave off China's tech challenge.

While 6G is still largely theoretical and at least a decade away the race fornext-genwireless technology dominance is heating up.

6G refers to the sixth generation ofwireless mobile connectivity.

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei begins research into 6G technology in Canada but what does this actually mean?

Mobile network standards work in roughly decade cycles from 1G in 1980 to 5G in 2020 so 6G is expected to be deployed in the 2030s, promising up to 100 times faster internet speeds than its predecessor.

Communications expert Professor Branka Vucetic, director of the Centre for IoT (Internet of Things)and Telecommunications at the University of Sydney,has been at the forefront of Australia's 5G and 6G research and development.

She told the ABC that 6G would deliver some of the unfulfilled promises of 5G, with higherreliability and low cost.

"It's going tobe like [living] in a science fiction world," she said.

"6G would be the main enabler of some new services, for example, integration of human brains with computers robots helping us at home, looking after the sick people or ageing population.

ABC News: Samuel Yang

"Self-driving cars will be common by the 2030s and they will be connected by 6G networks."

China began its 6G research back in 2018, the same year as the US, and 6G has been included as a priority in China's latest five-year plan.

The government says 6G technology will be used for smart city construction, disaster prevention and environmental protection.

Professor Greg Austin is the head of the Cyber, Space and Future Warfare Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore and an academic at the UNSW Institute for Cyber Security.

Supplied: Greg Austin

He told the ABC that although there's little information about what stage China is up to in its6G development, there are potential uses in military and intelligence.

"China's public domain discussions of 6G are really around the potential benefit to society in general, to general human advance and human progress," he said.

"It's a bit too soon to be identifying, in a sense, the specific military-related or intelligence-related applications of 6G."

In April, the state-run tabloid Global Times reported that the Chinese telco giant Huawei is set to launch two satellites in July "with aims including the verification of the 6G network technologies".

Huawei did not respond to the ABC's request for comment.

China's most high-profile diplomat asks how Australian intelligence and security services have "the guts" to say Huawei technology poses a threat as he rampsup criticism of the call to ban the company from Australia's 5G networks.

In November last year, Chinese media falsely reported that China has successfully launched "the world's first 6G satellite" into orbit, which raised a few eyebrows even within the country.

Professor Austin saidreports like these are "typical Chinese propaganda", and that according to the specialists he's consulted, "there is no such thing as a 6G satellite right now".

Rather,China has launched experimental satellites which can conduct tests related to the possible evolution of 6G, he said.

"[They] blur the truth and make it seem like China is advancing in technology much faster than it really is," he said.

"But to say that China leads in 6G technology today would be a gross exaggeration.

"What China is all about, is to convince its own citizens and the rest of the worldthat it's actually doing very well in the technology competition with the United States and its allies."

Huawei has been banned by the US and its allies, including Australia, over cyber security concerns such as espionage activities for the Chinese government and stealing intellectual property from foreign technology companies.

Huawei has repeatedly denied the allegations.

What exactly is Huawei and why does it seem like it's continually being targeted by foreign governments?

According to the Nine newspapers, earlier this year Huawei urged the Australian government to engage in 6G talks with the company to avoid a repeat of the ban on its equipment in 5G mobile networks.

John Lee, a senior analyst from Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, said while theUS's efforts to undermine Huawei's market dominance have been effective, it'd still be hard to untangle a global telco industry that has been integrated with Chinese firms overthe past two decades.

"In my opinion, it's unlikely that the world will split cleanly into US-led and China-led technology spheres, since most countries don't see their interests best served by aligning decisively with either Washington or Beijing," he said.

Supplied: Mercator Institute for China Studies

But the suspicionof Chinese cyber influence is likely to linger on with 6G, triggered bya track record of "penetrating Western systems to steal information" and repressionin Hong Kong and Xinjiang, according to Professor Austin.

The position taken by some international intelligence agencies was, if we can't keep them out of even these basic systems, let's not take the risk with 5G,because it's going to be quite sensitive for certain national infrastructure and security purposes," he said.

"So the insecurity on the cyber front was exacerbated by the new insecurities in geopolitics."

Professor Austin said whiletech tensions between China and the US were intensifying, with theBiden administrationlikely to continuepolicies to sanction Chinese tech companies, there is room fora more nuanced approach.

"Especially in respect of Huawei, there are many aspects of the way that policy was implemented which were really driven more by hysteria than by the actual risk," he said.

ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser

According to the National Intellectual Property Administration, China accounted for 35 per cent of the global 6G-related patent applications, followed by the US with 18 per cent.

Earlier this month, the US Senate passeda sweeping new bill for more research and innovation funding of$US250 billion ($323 billion).

In April, the US and Japan announced a joint investment ofUS$4.5 billion ($5.8 billion)for the research, development and testing of 6G.

Stan Grant and Yvonne Yong take a fresh look at news from inside China.

"The Chinese government is locked in a battle for technological supremacy with the United States for all sorts of strategic political and military purposes," Professor Austin said.

"So we really can't separate Chinese interest in 6G as being any different from Chinese interest in artificial intelligence or space travel or even undersea exploration."

Professor Vucetic said China wascurrently leading the way in 5G, and there was significant investment from smartphone manufacturers, telcos and the Chinese government in 6G.

"The strategic importance of 5G has been overlooked in the past by the Western countries," she said.

"Now many other countries started to invest in 6G, because I think they realised that they were lagging behind China in 5G."

The Next G Alliance, a US-ledcoalition including tech giants like Apple, Google and AT&T, was formed in October last yearto "advance North American leadership in 6G".

Wireless network and smartphone manufacturers in South Korea and Europe have also joined the 6G race by launching large-scale research and developmentprojects.

"If China is prepared to invest at levels that the United States and other countries do not invest, then we might see China take quite a lead in 6Gtechnologies by the time we get to 2025 or 2030," Professor Austinsaid.

"But more importantly, humanity will win from 6Gtechnology, there will be important new breakthroughs."

Read the story in Chinese:

Watch the story on China Tonight, Tuesdaysat 8:00pm AEST on ABC NewsChannel and 10:30pm AEST on ABC TV, or stream on ABC iview.

Original post:
China claims it's leading the way in 6G mobile tech research, but the reality is still years away - ABC News