Huawei Poised to Face Regulatory Difficulties in Canada
First Australia then the United States, now China's Huawei Technologies must contend anew with fresh regulatory hurdle that likely would come from another key market - Canada.
A top security analyst from the North American country has indicated on Wednesday that Canberra and Washington were correct in averting the planned expansion of Huawei to their respective economic territories.
The reason given by the two governments were almost identical - Huawei, currently regarded as the second biggest telecommunication firm in the world, poses serious national security risks because the tech firm is perceived as too close to Beijing.
A U.S. congressional report issued on Monday has accused the Chinese firm of deliberately cloaking the nature of ties with the government of China. The same inquiry pointed to another major Chinese company, ZTE Corp, as possible tool for Beijing to easily conduct economic espionage on nations where the two firms are allowed to operate.
Both companies have consistently protested that they were being unfairly singled out by intelligence witchhunts, insisting too that it makes no corporate sense to act as stooges for a government and in the process compromise the firms' profitability and stability.
Both the Australian and U.S. governments have maintained that the handling of the Huawei affair enjoyed the backing of solid intelligence reports.
And Ray Boisvert, who Reuters said had once occupied one of the top posts for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), cannot help but agree.
Mr Boisvert told the news agency on Wednesday that Huawei specifically is risk and the company would most likely "would work at the behest of the Chinese government and would look to intercept communications."
Security analysts were particularly that Huawei's top man, Ren Zhengfei, once rubbed shoulders with top Chinese intelligence officials when he used to be a member of China's national army.
The U.S. Congress has expressed fears that permitting Huawei and ZTE telecommunication equipments to freely enter the U.S. market would open a gateway for Chinese-backed hackers to siphon off important data from America's computer and network system.
While Canberra has not openly detailed the reason why Huawei was barred from participating in the $37 billion roll out of the national broadband network (NBN), Prime Minister Julia Gillard has asserted that the move was reflective of Australia's foremost interests to safeguard its national security and interests.
Canada may need to follow the same course, Mr Boisvert said, or it can instead adopt "a bit of a cat-and-mouse game . . . and come up with mitigation strategies to make it work," meaning Huawei will be allowed to stay but with corresponding measures that would keep the company in a tight rein.
Local partners of the Chinese firm should be allowed "considerable examination of all the code that they're providing (to Huawei), or at least some certification of it," Mr Boisvert said.
This tactic should at least prevent the recurrence of the fate that befell Nortel Networks Corp, once one of Canada's biggest telcos, he added.
"Nortel fell as Huawei rose, and it wasn't by coincidence," the security expert warned.
It appears, however, that Mr Boisvert's suggested arrangement was not on the immediate radar of the Canadian government as far as the build up of the country's federal telecommunication network, which will handle the state's voice and data communication needs, is concerned.
In a statement issued by the office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the government declared that it would be "choosing carefully in the construction of this network, and it has invoked the national security exception for the building of this network."