SYDNEY—The chairman of China’s telecom firm Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s Australian office said on June 27 that the company’s network equipment is “safe and secure,” ramping up the company’s public lobbying against concerns that its links to the Chinese Communist Party’s intelligence services pose a security risk.
Australia is likely to bar Huawei from participating in a 5G mobile telecommunications roll-out as it fears the company is de facto controlled by Beijing and sensitive infrastructure will be vulnerable to eavesdropping, according to Australian media reports.
But John Lord, chairman of Huawei’s Australian unit, told Australian Associated Press that he believes “banning Huawei will not make the Australian telecom ecosystem safer” and that a ban would “have a huge impact on the industry and the prices and services Australians receive.”
“It will be a great policy failure and demonstrate to the world that we are not ready for the new reality of a smart and innovative China,” said Lord who was a former Rear Admiral in the Australian Navy.
Turnbull said on June 27 his government was still mulling Huawei’s role in the country’s nascent 5G network.
“We'll continue to consider that and get the best advice on that from our national security agencies,” he said.
Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications network equipment and the No. 3 smartphone supplier, has already been virtually shut out from the giant U.S. market because of national security concerns.
It was blocked on security grounds from supplying equipment to Australia’s new broadband network and Australia this month promised hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure Huawei did not build an internet cable between Australia and the Solomon Islands.
The telecommunications company was targeted by a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report, which was released in April, that said the company has extensive ties with the Chinese Communist Party. Ren Zhengfei, the founder of the company, was a former officer in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). He continues to run the company today.
Hamilton says in his book that Huawei has spent time creating a public image of trustworthiness by setting up an Australian board as a front: “Although it is not a state-owned company, it would be naive in the extreme to believe a company that with government support turned itself into the world’s second-biggest telecommunications equipment maker ... did not have daily links with China’s intelligence services.”
