Huawei criticized the Australian government for hitting it with a 5G ban last week, accusing Canberra of not working in the “long-term interests of the Australian people” and calling the decision “politically motivated” in a statement provided to CNBC. The move itself formally isn’t an anti-Huawei measure but a directive meant to ensure all telecom equipment suppliers meet the same security standards already imposed on wireless carriers in the country. Regardless, Huawei is the only major company affected by the development and sources close to Canberra previously said the ban was specifically designed to cripple the Chinese company’s ambitions in Australia.
Beijing itself already condemned Australia’s move, accusing the country of creating an unfair environment for Chinese firms to compete in. China’s critics repeatedly argued Australia and other nations are far more receptive to companies from the Far Eastern country than the other way around, maintaining that China isn’t concerned about fair competition and only wants its own companies to continue expanding, no matter the cost. The Australian government raised the security standards imposed on network equipment makers following consultations with various experts, with the conclusion reportedly being that Huawei poses a national security risk due to the fact that it could be easily controlled by Beijing and used for the purposes of spying foreign nations through its infrastructure and compromising their critical communications.
Huawei has been denying those claims for the better part of the current century, often reiterating it’s a private entity owned by its employees and not Beijing, Under Chinese laws, private firms like Huawei could be compelled to provide domestic intelligence agencies with unrestricted data access and cooperate in any kind of intelligence gathering required of them. Huawei has been facing similar accusations in the United States for over a decade now, using similar arguments in attempts to fend them off. Following the new development, Huawei will be unable to provide Australian mobile service providers with any kind of technology meant to enable the fifth generation of mobile networks, a potentially revolutionary technology that’s widely expected to create a global economic boom in the near future.