Why China’s 5G riches are outside the reach of international investors

How can investors profit from China’s race with the U.S. for 5G supremacy? Finding the answer is as tricky as figuring out the geopolitics.

The nation’s sleepy telecom stocks came back to life after Huawei Technologies Co. CFO Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada in early December. While the official charge was that the company had violated U.S. sanctions on Iran, many in China interpreted the action as another attempt by the American government to thwart the country’s advance in 5G.