DECOUPLING: Huawei is running out of display suppliers as Samsung and LG bail out, report says.

Related: Don’t Rely on Hope; Attack Huawei’s Value Chain.

The Trump Administration’s trade restrictions create a window during which it should mount a coherent high-low strategy that creates viable U.S. competitors before Huawei can recover.

The low end of the strategy would attack Huawei in the 5G radio network market, which is ripe for disruption. Huawei’s tightly integrated radio systems are attractive to network operators but unnecessary given emerging hardware advancements. Like today’s P.C.s, radio networks could be disaggregated as in Open RAN, with various parts being provided by different companies and integrated by a third-party vendor.

But Open RAN will not happen on its own. Moving quickly from open standards to market-ready offerings will require U.S. government demonstrations, such as those being mounted by the Department of Defense, to prove out the approach and spur the establishment of new network integrators. Moreover, investments in microelectronics like those envisioned under the CHIPs Act, American Foundries Act, and DoD Electronics Resurgence Initiative will be required to improve U.S. radio hardware to achieve competitive lifecycle cost and performance with Huawei.

The low end of the strategy may initiate a race to the bottom in 5G radio hardware but would force Huawei to defend its current position and slow improvements in its cloud computing business, where the company is not even a major player in China.

Keep squeezing them until they scream, and then squeeze some more.

Additionally, does anyone seriously believe that this better-late-than-never decoupling would be going on had Hillary Clinton won in 2016, or that it would continue if Joe Biden wins in 2020?