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Huawei hits back after calls for ban from Australian 5G infrastructure: A timeline of the controvers



Although successful internationally, Huawei has faced difficulties in some markets, arising from undue state support, links to the PLA and Ministry of State Security (MSS), and concerns that Huawei's infrastructure equipment may enable surveillance by the Chinese government.[14][15] With the development of 5G wireless networks, there have been calls from the U.S. and its allies to not do any kind of business with Huawei or other Chinese telecommunications companies such as ZTE.[16] Huawei has argued that its products posed "no greater cybersecurity risk" than those of any other vendor, that the US has not shown evidence of espionage, and that the allegations are hypocritical as the American government itself conducts state survelliance programmes.[17] However, experts point out that the 2014 Counter-Espionage Law and 2017 National Intelligence Law of the People's Republic of China are far-reaching legislation that compels Huawei and other companies to cooperate in gathering intelligence.[18] According to former staff "it is no secret that employees often work with intelligence officials embedded in the company",[19][5] with 25,000 Huawei employees previously serving in the MSS or the PLA, including former chairwoman Sun Yafang.[20][21][22] Intelligence agencies have also implicated Huawei in several hacks of telecom networks,[23][24] while several rival telecom manufacturers like Nortel and Cisco Systems have traced industrial espionage back to Huawei.[25]


Between December 2018 and January 2019, German and British intelligence agencies initially pushed back against the US' allegations, stating that after examining Huawei's 5G hardware and accompanying source code, they have found no evidence of malevolence and that a ban would therefore be unwarranted.[193][194] Additionally, the head of Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (the information security arm of GCHQ) stated that the US has not managed to provide the UK with any proof of its allegations against Huawei and also their agency had concluded that any risks involving Huawei in UK's telecom networks are "manageable".[195][194] The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC), set up in 2010 to assuage security fears as it examined Huawei hardware and software for the UK market, was staffed largely by employees from Huawei but with regular oversight from GCHQ, which led to questions of operating independence from Huawei.[196] On 1 October 2020, an official report released by National Cyber Security Centre noted that "Huawei has failed to adequately tackle security flaws in equipment used in the UK's telecoms networks despite previous complaints", and flagged one vulnerability of "national significance" related to broadband in 2019. The report concluded that Huawei was not confident of implementing the five-year plan of improving its software engineering processes, so there was "limited assurance that all risks to UK national security" could be mitigated in the long-term.[197] On 14 July 2020, the United Kingdom Government announced a ban on the use of company's 5G network equipment, citing security concerns.[198] In October 2020, the British Defence Select Committee announced that it had found evidence of Huawei's collusion with the Chinese state and that it supported accelerated purging of Huawei equipment from Britain's telecom infrastructure by 2025, since they concluded that Huawei had "engaged in a variety of intelligence, security, and intellectual property activities" despite its repeated denials.[169][199] In November 2020, Huawei challenged the UK government's decision, citing an Oxford Economics report that it had contributed 3.3 billion to the UK's GDP.[200]




Huawei hits back after calls for ban from Australian 5G infrastructure

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