Banning Huawei may not be enough, warns Japanese strategist

Blocking Huawei from the nation's 5G network may not mitigate the risks to Australia from the company’s telecommunication gear being used elsewhere, according a leading Japanese defence strategist.

Simply stopping Huawei from building 5G networks in a handful of allied countries will not necessarily ensure information security for democracies in the future, said Dr Michito Tsuruoka on a visit to Melbourne.

“If only the US, Australia and Japan exclude Huawei, then how can we, even in our countries, ensure the safety and security of information and technologies?” asked the Keio University professor. “Because we always interact with other countries which use Huawei.”

The tactic of pressuring other countries to block the controversial company also raised questions about the strategy in managing technological competition with China, he said.

“If we really need to prevent other countries, then what sort of leverage do we have?” said Dr Tsuruoka. “That’s something we need to ask more.”

Democracies have put Huawei under a cloud but does it make a difference?Credit:AP

Japan, along with the Australia, New Zealand and the US, has blocked Huawei gear from sensitive parts of its telecommunication networks since 2018 amid allegations the technology can be used to snoop on domestic communications and give a lasting political advantage to Beijing. The US has urged allies to do the same.

Two other countries in the Five-Eyes intelligence-sharing network — the UK and Canada — have sent more mixed signals about Huawei adoption.

US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien told an audience in Canada on Saturday that using Huawei would let Beijing "know every health record, every banking record, every social media post ... about every single Canadian". Adopting it in Canada could put US intelligence-sharing at risk, he said.

The concern about the integrity of communications passing through global networks where Huawei is used is shared in the US. An intelligence community’s threat assessment in the US concluded: “Data will increasingly flow across foreign-produced equipment and foreign-controlled networks, raising the risk of foreign access and denial of service."

Dr Tsuruoka, who was in Melbourne for a talk at La Trobe University earlier this month on Japan’s security challenges, said defence strategists largely didn’t have a “good answer” for how to ensure security with Huawei. He has served as a senior research fellow at Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies.

Huawei is the world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment with revenue of $US105 billion ($154 billion) last year with customers around the world. Its founder’s ties with the People's Liberation Army, not to mention the overlap between the company's global growth and Beijing's security aspirations, have raised concerns in democratic capitals.

US prosecutors charged the company with stealing intellectual property — all part of a broader battle for tech dominance between China and the world.

Huawei, for its part, denies it would share customer information with governments and funds testing of its equipment to satisfy concerns of security agencies.

Not all countries have opted for bans.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signalled a willingness to allow Huawei into the country's 5G network. In the developing world, Huawei has found many clients for less advanced telco equipment, where governments are attracted to the lower costs, and increased prospect of centralised surveillance.

Danielle Cave: the ban on Huawei makes sense for Australia.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute cyber policy analyst Danielle Cave said Australia’s ban reflected the strategic outlook of the nation.

“Other states might be more comfortable taking on larger chunks of risk to work with high-risk vendors in 5G (and in other technologies like smart cities), but given Australia’s place in the world and its strategic outlook in the Indo-Pacific, Australia’s risk calculus will not be exactly the same as all countries in Europe, for example.

“This ban means the government has put itself in the best position to protect Australia’s critical national infrastructure, regardless of the decisions made by other governments around the world,” she said.

Dr Tsuruoka is not alone in his concerns.

Technology and national security expert at the US-based Centre for a New American Security, Elsa Kania, wrote earlier this month that even if the US could fully secure its own 5G networks, “US data and entities may remain reliant, including for military and commercial activities, upon overseas digital infrastructure that could prove highly vulnerable”.

"The presence of Huawei gear in the critical infrastructure of US allies and partners…also creates new risks, to an extent that could undermine US capabilities for command and control and power projection."

In time of war, Huawei would in theory effectively possess a kill switch on vital communications.

The problem of assuring information integrity through increasingly integrated digital networks prompted Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to announce a new industry code to enhance the security of web-connected devices which could be linked through 5G networks.