Emma Dykstra
published 17 November 2020
Canada is now the only member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that has not formally banned Huawei from its 5G networks. This fact alone should startle Canadians and question the role Canada is now playing on the international stage. After a failed $2.3 million quest for a UN Security Council seat, Canada seems to be in search of a calling on the international level. A stance on Huawei would be a perfect way to start developing that identity in an ever changing world.
What is Huawei? The controversial telecommunications company is the world’s largest supplier of network equipment. They employ about 180,000 people and are based in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen. Huawei is the second largest smartphone supplier after Samsung, responsible for 18% of the smartphone market. It’s no question that they are a global leader on network technologies and their high-quality smartphones speak for themselves.
But Huawei has not been welcomed in Western nations with open arms. U.S. intelligence agencies have linked the company with the Chinese government, the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC). Due to rising tensions between China and Western powers, there are concerns that the technology being developed by Huawei could be used to spy and that the equipment may contain “backdoors”.
There is no evidence for these claims, however the concern remains for several reasons. The United States has raised concerns about China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which states that organizations and businesses must “support, co-operate with and collaborate in national intelligence work”. This means Huawei would have to comply with any government demands the PRC made. The UK set up a security evaluation centre to monitor Huawei and noted in March of 2019 that they hadn’t found any evidence of Chinese state activity but did find some defects in their software engineering and cyber security competence. But on July 14, 2020 they announced they had significantly changed their security assessment and effectively banned Huawei technology from their 5G systems.
Many countries are moving from 4G to 5G mobile networks. The new 5G network will be faster, cleaner, and will improve the way we work and communicate with our mobile devices. Letting Huawei play a part in the installation of these new networks could give them the ability to spy and disrupt telecommunications as tensions rise between countries. Networks control everything, from our cell phones to flights, remote surgeries to fire alarms. If a country with malicious intent had a “backdoor” and access to the networks that control our everyday lives, it would be disastrous.
The Five Eyes intelligence alliance composed of Australia, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have a treaty for join cooperation in signals intelligence. If one of the Five Eyes decided to allow Huawei into their 5G networks, the other eyes might get uneasy, or even worse, remove a nation from the alliance making it the Four Eyes (which has significantly less of a ring to it). Canada has delayed this decision, which has made it difficult for Huawei to become a part of the country’s 5G development - but it hasn’t made it an impossibility.
Banning Huawei would be a statement from Canada that would indicate that when democracy is threatened, Canada takes action. Canada’s unwillingness to take a firm stance when other Western nations already have sends the message that Canada is not willing to take a firm position on potential threats to its’ citizens privacy rights. Canada’s closest allies are willing to step up: so why must Canada sit by and continue to be seen as a pawn between the U.S. and China? If Canada lets Huawei in, it effectively is left out of the Five Eyes loop. The security and intelligence loss for Canada would be devastating, and Canada would become China’s window on Western dealings. With the continuing investigation on the outbreak of COVID-19, China violating the rights of Uighur Muslims, and the ongoing censorship issues China also faces, Canada should ask itself why it still hasn’t taken a firm stance on Huawei and other threats to human rights around the world when so many others have.
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