U.S. officials continue to warn the world about the Huawei threat. A State Department deputy assistant secretary said yesterday that there is a fundamental difference between Huawei and Western companies, and that we need to pay attention to the difference when it comes to the security of 5G networks.
Two weeks ago, President Trump signed an executive order, banning the use of telecoms equipment made by companies thought to be a threat to U.S. national security. The Department of Commerce then put Huawei and its 68 affiliates on its Entity List, making it subject to export control.
However, many European countries have not yet decided whether to completely exclude Huawei equipment from their 5G supply chain. The German government does not want to ban Huawei, and the UK plans to allow the telecoms giant to participate in “non-core” parts of their 5G network.
“In 5G, we’re going to change the network architecture. We’re going to push what are called ‘smart components’ throughout the network, letting the network respond more quickly. This means that the previous security distinction between securing the ‘core’ and the ‘non-core’—and that is between the ‘critical’ and ‘non-critical’ elements—vanishes. For 5G, un-secure components that are anywhere in the network—not just in the core—could interact to influence the network and have dangerous implications,” said Robert Strayer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy at the US State Department.
Strayer said on Wednesday that Huawei is fundamentally different from Western companies.
“They are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party and the dictates of Xi Jinping. There is no type of legal process that they’re subject to that is transparent in any type of Western way. So that’s the fundamental linchpin between how our company is differ and how Chinese companies differ,” Strayer said.
Strayer also pointed out the Chinese Communist Party’s arbitrary detention of two Canadians, and the high-tech surveillance used in Xinjiang, China, where independent research estimates 1.5 million people are currently detained in so-called “re-education” camps. He said all this indicates that the Chinese Communist Party has no respect for human rights at all. “We would be naive to think that the way that China treats its own citizens will be better—that they’ll treat our citizens better than they treat their own citizens,” he said.
will treat our citizens any better than they treat their own citizens.”
Next week, Trump will have a State visit to the United Kingdom, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also visit Europe, including Germany and the UK. Huawei and 5G will be important topics in these discussions.
Zack Cooper, Research Fellow on Asian defense strategy, American Enterprise Institute said, “There is real risk and I think that’s what the U.S. is trying to point out, but look, at the end of the day, some of these countries are willing to accept that risk. And it may be a bad decision that they look back on and regret; but at the moment, this is where the debate is: Are they willing to accept more risk, or they willing to pay more money? You’ve got to do one of the two.”
