It's pretty much this. Except that the US seems to try backdoor subsidies, which isn't really addressing the core issue. There was a pretty good analysis of the whole thing about exactly this issue but I just can't remember where it was.

I used to see the Ericsson guys once a year and they seemed to be pretty busy bragging about all the new 5G patents they have.

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/us-eyes-nokia-erics...