Editor's note: What is at the heart of the global battle over 5G technology? Why is the U.S. trying to crack down on Chinese tech companies? Richard Turrin, author of the best-selling "Innovation Lab Excellence," who previously headed IBM's Fintech Innovation Lab in Singapore and IBM's banking risk technology team in China after a 20-year career in banking, shares his views on this issue. The opinions expressed in this video are his, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

5G is the foundation technology of our digital future, our meaning all countries in the planet. The free flow of data is absolutely critical.

China is clearly adopting 5G before any other country. It will have a tremendous lead in 5G. And it will be a little bit of what I would call the Sputnik moment for the West.

The Sputnik moment is what gave rise to these science and technology programs in the 1960s in the United States and in Europe. And the Sputnik moment will be coming when 5G advances in China, and the lead becomes so large that the U.S. and Europe say well, we have to respond with something more than just words.

So we're thinking in terms of 5G, in the sense that, well, my movie will download faster. The reality it is an entire ecosystem of services, products that surround this new capability that will be built.

And I for one, even in the innovation business, I can't imagine what they all will be.

That's what young start-up companies are going to do for us in the next decade. They're going to come up with lots of great ideas. And China will definitely be in the lead. It's going to be an interesting thing to watch and time will tell how Europe and the West responds.

What you're really looking at the 5G divide is really less about Huawei and more about our world and the U.S. and China are fighting over them.

The U.S. wants to control this technology platform, which it has essentially done since the end of World War Two. All right. Now you've got a new world where the new technology player coming in China and they are trying to topple because they have wonderful products than the U.S.

So it is a Macintosh versus Windows sort of dilemma, where what you really see fighting out here is who controls the ecosystem, who controls the underlying technology that makes digital work. So, Huawei is really caught in this great divide between two technological powers both vying to control the digital infrastructure of our future.

Interviewer: Abhishek G Bhaya

Graphic design: Liu Shaozhen

Video editing: Zhang Chunnan, Zhou Tingyu and Feng Ran

Managing editor: Wang Xinyan

Senior producer: Wei Wei

Managing director: Mei Yan

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)