Huawei’s 5G network faces challenges in Australia 

Summary 

As of early July 2018, the Australian government is preparing to officially prohibit Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei from participating in its 5G mobile broadband project, citing national security concerns. For years, Western intelligence agencies have brought up concerns that Huawei could use their tech for espionage on behalf of Beijing, although there is no publicly available evidence to back up this claim. Huawei-Australia chairman John Lord stated that the decision was “ill-informed and not based on facts.” China Daily, a Chinese newspaper, criticized Australia’s action, claiming it was negatively affecting the Sino-Canberra relations. Huawei is currently suffering from a serious reputation crisis due to growing national security fears across the globe. The United States government has recently made efforts to lock Huawei out of the American market, appealing to Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., to cut ties with the Chinese tech giant.  

FAO Global Assessment

The negative reputation that proceeds Chinese telecommunications firms as they look to sign deals with foreign governments, especially in the West, provides American-headquartered tech firms a unique opportunity. Without the competition from their Chinese counterparts, US firms will have a smaller pool of rivals for public and private contracts in western countries.  One area to be concerned about it the potential for reprisal against western firms who are attempting to enter the Chinese market.

Related Links 

1. BBC China- 澳洲“封杀”华为：国家安全与“一带一路”的考量 
2. New York Times- Huawei’s New Front in the Global Technology Cold War: Australia 
3. Reuters- China’s Huawei rebuts Australian security concerns amid Sino-Canberra tensions 
4. The Wall Street Journal- Why 5G Leader Huawei Could Get Shut Out of a Major Rollout 
5. China Daily- Australia’s arrogance puts bilateral ties at risk 

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Analyst Bio

International Policy Associate- Weiting Li

Weiting Li is an international policy intern at FAO Global, where she focuses on international trade, technology, and environmental policies. Weiting is currently a second year graduate student pursuing dual master’s degrees in public policy at Georgetown University and Business Administration at University of Geneva. Prior to Georgetown, she was the assistant for government relations and working groups at European Chamber of Commerce in China. She graduated from Gettysburg College with a major in Sociology and a minor in Business. 

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