The Case for Banning Huawei from the 5G Networks of Five Eyes Allies

"Let me say something from Canada's perspective [...] I would argue that the amount of harm that China can do to any one of our countries is in fact limited. Would there be short-term pain? Would there be perhaps serious pain for a little while? It is nothing like the kind of pain that might be felt by Vietnam or Malaysia [neighbours of China constantly exposed to its territorial bullying] or some countries in that part of the world."
"Everybody sort of reacts and said 'China's there, they're so important, we can't antagonize them'. I would argue that our countries [Five Eye allies] would not be materially hurt in the medium to long term if we said no to Huawei." 
"We should make a really careful review and not only rely on the research that characterizes China as a phenomenal market."
"Huawei is a Chinese company in the sense that it's not state owned, but it's operating in a sector considered strategic by the Chinese state and it's clearly subject to direction by the Chinese state."
Richard Fadden, former head, Canadian Security Intelligence Service

"There are a lot of impressions of China as this ten-foot economic giant."
"But if you look at the actual numbers, the amount of reliance on China for trade is relatively small."
Martin Rjasser, former senior intelligence officer, U.S. CIA, Conference of Defence Associations Institute

Countries in the Five Eyes alliance share security information with each other (Picture: Crown Copyright)

China, as a massive influence on the world economy, with the power of its 1.4-billion population labour base and huge consumer market attracting avid attention from corporate offices all over the world anxious to invest and to trade with the colossus, also inspires trepidation and caution in the minds of government authorities and their intelligence agencies as a result of its avaricious over-reach. Its plans for greater influence and control of the emerging nations of the world, its outreach to grasp the world's minerals and other natural resources arouses suspicion everywhere.

Its territorial ambitions are expansive and aggressive. Its hunger for new technology, particularly artificial intelligence is fed by its nonchalant lifting of trade secrets from the laboratories of nations that have invested time and expertise in developing them. China wishes to advantage itself by any means possible, many of which are piratical and obviously unethical. Espionage it conducts through reminding its citizens and companies abroad of their obligations to the state arouse doubts that its telecommunications giant Huawei will be an innocent player in global communications.

Canada's relations with China have been fraught with tension, caught in a trade war between its southern neighbour and largest trade partner, the United States, and China, Canada's third-largest trade destination. Beijing has been punishing Canada for its insolence in honouring an extradition agreement with the United States, in holding the CFO of Huawei on an American warrant. Accusations of 'racism' have echoed from Beijing to Ottawa, even as two Canadians are being held incommunicado as jailed hostages and Canadian exports in canola and beef to the huge market in China have been hobbled as punishment.

China is notorious for cyber-espionage, for ignoring copyright, for hijacking state and corporate secret files. Because Huawei answers directly to the Chinese Communist Party, suspicion that spyware can be planted in other nations' 5G upgrades proliferate, with reason. The Five eyes Intelligence alliance comprised of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia have much to lose should China have access to intelligence shared between the five. To the extent that if any among the five agree to allow Huawei to take part in their upgrade, the other four would be endangered as well.

The promise with 5G wireless is speed of connection and greater bandwidth, permitting expanded use of digital technology overall. Private and secret information travelling along those networks would certainly be susceptible to cybersecurity lapses, making the countries involved vulnerable to China's eagerness to obtain secret information meant only for Five Eyes Intelligence alone.

"Seeing how China has manipulated data about COVID-19, seeing how China has reacted toward countries that act in ways it doesn't appreciate, and knowing how crucial 5G will be to economies in the future, it's clear that involving Huawei would create a vulnerability."
"The trust with China is gone."
Guy Saint-Jacques, Canadian ambassador to China, 2012 and 2016

Photo: Lynn Grieveson