The government of Australia officially banned Huawei from participating in its 5G project, preventing the company from supplying any equipment designed for next-generation wireless communications. The decision that Canberra has been telegraphing for months now was made based on advice from security experts and seeks to prevent a scenario wherein a foreign government has a realistic chance of affecting Australia’s critical telecom infrastructure. Formally, the move isn’t targeting Huawei but all network equipment suppliers who must now meet the same national security standards expected from wireless carriers themselves, though the Chinese tech giant is the only firm affected by the decision in a significant manner.
Canberra considers Huawei an easy target for Beijing to influence and direct, arguing the Chinese government could realistically control the company and its infrastructure in any way it pleases should it choose to do so, with Huawei spending the better part of the last two decades calling those allegations baseless, both in Australia and other countries around the world. China’s foreign and commerce ministries condemned the move as a weak excuse for placing unfair restrictions on Huawei’s innovation achievements that make it one of the top candidates for 5G equipment procurement on the planet. Foreign ministry official Lu Kang called for Canberra “to abandon ideological prejudices and provide a fair competitive environment for Chinese companies” during a press briefing held earlier today.
China’s critics are still quick to point out that all Western nations are much more receptive to entities from the Far Eastern country than the other way around, often ironically calling for Beijing to start ordering 5G equipment from the likes of Nokia and Ericsson if fair competition is all it’s concerned about. Huawei‘s wireless ambitions already led to tensions between Australia and China rising earlier this year, with the former pressuring Solomon Islands into dropping an already agreed Internet infrastructure buildout project backed by the Shenzhen-based company, prompting harsh criticism from Beijing.