China's Huawei hits back at Australian cyber fears
SYDNEY — Chinese telecoms giant Huawei on Tuesday hit back at claims it was a security risk following its barring from Australia's broadband rollout, with one director labelling it "complete nonsense".
Huawei, among the world's top makers of telecommunications equipment, has been blocked from bidding for contracts on Australia's ambitious Aus$36 billion (US$38 billion) broadband plan due to fears of Chinese cyber attacks.
The government corporation rolling out the project, NBN Co., had internally endorsed Huawei, but the Chinese firm -- established by a former People's Liberation Army engineer -- was instructed by Canberra not to bid.
The issue was considered by the government's National Security Committee, a high-level group including the prime minister, foreign and defence ministers, and their decision was based on "strong advice" from intelligence operatives, according to the Australian Financial Review.
But Huawei's Australian chairman John Lord, formerly a long-serving rear admiral in Australia's navy, dismissed the cyber fears.
"Huawei is not a security risk to Australia," he told the newspaper, adding that he had done "extensive due diligence" before taking his role including talks with founder Ren Zhengfei.
"I was very confident when I took up the appointment. I am committed to Huawei."
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer and ex-Victoria state premier John Brumby are also on the board and Lord said they were "all comfortable taking up the positions" and "still are today".
According to state broadcaster ABC, Huawei noticed a marked cooling in relations after US President Barack Obama visited Australia last November.
It said people from the company were "told to get a message to China that Australia would not tolerate increased cyber hacking of ministerial offices and departments".
The computers of Australia's prime minister, foreign and defence ministers were all suspected of being hacked in March last year, with the attacks thought to have originated in China.
Beijing dismissed the allegations as "groundless and made out of ulterior purposes".
Downer, Australia's longest-serving top diplomat, said any concerns about Huawei being a security risk were "complete nonsense".
"This whole concept of Huawei being involved in cyber warfare, presumably... based on the fact that the company comes from China and everybody in China who's involved with information technology is involved in cyber warfare... is just completely absurd," Downer told ABC.
"This is about understanding the new China, the new world, the new relationships which are opening up."
Huawei's technology is used to build mobile phone networks around the world. It has repeatedly denied any links to the Chinese military, but has also run afoul of regulators and lawmakers in the United States.
AFP: China's Huawei hits back at Australian cyber fears
Opposition slams NBN exclusion of Chinese giant
The coalition says the federal government's decision to ban Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from taking part in tenders for work on the national broadband network (NBN) is ''clumsy, offensive and unprofessional''.
Huawei Technologies, which is close to becoming the world's largest telecommunications equipment provider, was advised late last year that it could not tender for NBN contracts because of security concerns about cyber attacks emanating from China.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters in Seoul, where she is attending nuclear security talks, the NBN is a crucial national infrastructure project.
''You would expect, as a government, we would make all of the prudent decisions to make sure that infrastructure project does what we want it to do, and we've taken one of those decisions,'' she said, when asked about the Huawei decision.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Nicola Roxon told AAP today the $36 billion NBN project was the ''backbone of Australia's information infrastructure'' and as such the government had a responsibility ''to do our utmost to protect its integrity and that of the information carried on it''.
''This is consistent with the government's practice for ensuring the security and resilience of Australia's critical infrastructure more broadly,'' the spokesman said.
Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb, who last year toured Huawei's facilities in mainland China and Hong Kong on a trip sponsored by the company, said decisions such as this would reinforce the increasingly ''dim view'' overseas investors had of Australia.
''Over the last four years the Rudd-Gillard governments have damaged our relations with China, India, Japan and Indonesia at a time when the middle class across that region is exploding,'' Mr Robb told AAP.
''This looks to be the latest clumsy, offensive and unprofessional instalment of a truly dysfunctional government.''
He said the fact that former foreign minister Alexander Downer and former Victorian premier John Brumby were on Huawei's Australian board, and that the company had a leading role in Britain's telecommunications sector, warranted the government considering it with ''clear eyes''.
''We must bear in mind that this is a company which is heavily involved in eight of nine NBN roll-outs around the world,'' Mr Robb said.
The parliamentary pecuniary interest register shows opposition deputy leader Julie Bishop and frontbench colleague Bronwyn Bishop also visited Huawei's facilities as guests of the company.
Ms Bishop declined to comment on the tender process, which she described as ''a matter for the government'', and said she had not been lobbied in regard to the NBN or any other matter.
''My trip included a tour of Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, where I was shown some of the technology under development by its research and development division that comprises about half of Huawei's 120,000 staff,'' she told AAP.
A Huawei Australia spokesman told AAP it had issued an open invitation to all MPs, and the media, to tour its facilities.
''We haven't targeted one party over another,'' the spokesman said.
However, former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally rejected a statement by a Huawei spokesman earlier today that she travelled on a company sponsored trip to the firm's China facilities.
''This is incorrect,'' she said in a statement.''I have never undertaken any travel paid for by Huawei.''
When told of Ms Keneally's statement, the spokesman said there had been a miscommunication.
Huawei spokesman Jeremy Mitchell said Australia was still getting used to privately owned Chinese companies, but Huawei would not give up on tendering for NBN projects, which are being managed by the Australian government-owned NBN Co Ltd.
''We're not used to companies coming from China that are leading in technology and also global - 70 per cent of our work is outside of China,'' Mr Mitchell said.
''This is new territory.
''We see this as a setback. We're obviously disappointed. But through looking at what we've done overseas, looking at what we've done in the United Kingdom, we can put in place measures that help the Australian government consider us as a partner in the NBN.''
Huawei was established in the late 1980s by Ren Zhengfei, a former major in the People's Liberation Army, and is headquartered in the special economic zone of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.Its Australian office opened in 2004 in Sydney and is the operations hub for its business across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.NBN Co declined to comment.
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Opposition slams NBN exclusion of Chinese giant
).The acrimonious situation is limited to the whole situation of the taxi driving!! If you are in Australia then you would know already. But then we can see about that later. And the response from Indians should give you some idea of how much mistrust China has created in Indians too. Time to rethink the problem outsourcing policies??
