Huawei: Cyber Threat or Trade War Pawn? 

“We engage with countries around the world about our concerns regarding cyberthreats in telecommunications infrastructure. As they're looking to move to 5G, we remind them of those concerns. There are additional complexities to 5G networks that make them more vulnerable to cyberattacks.”

“We have been communicating with the governments around the world around the independence of Huawei’s operations. The fact [is] that we have never taken any requests from any governments to damage the business or networks of our customers or other countries.”

“We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.”

“We don’t favour a complete ban. It’s not that simple.”

“I think to date that the UK has taken a good risk-managed approach to Huawei. We are as a nation risk managing, and that’s what good cybersecurity is all about. I actually think the Huawei thing is significantly about the trade war between the US and China – it’s in large part political.”

“There is no way Huawei can resist any order from the People’s Republic of China Government or the Chinese Communist Party to do its bidding in any context, commercial or otherwise. Huawei would have to turn over all requested data and perform whatever other surveillance activities are required.”

“In the first quarter of 2019, our revenue grew by 30.6% year-on-year and profit by 35.4%. I would therefore like to thank those US politicians who have called others to block us all over the world. Unfortunately, the US sees the 5G technology as a strategic weapon. For them it is a kind of nuclear bomb.”

“Huawei is a Chinese state-directed telecom company with a singular goal: undermine foreign competition by stealing trade secrets and intellectual property, and through artificially low prices backed by the Chinese government.”

“The race to 5G is on and America must win. It’s a race our great companies are now involved in.”

“I think [the US has] been rather leaden-footed in the way they’ve responded. Firstly by lacking an explicit, government-articulated strategy in relation to 5G which is only now starting to emerge, but also in arguing or shaping the challenge from China and from Huawei solely as an espionage issue.”

“It’s essential that we get the balance right, ensuring that our networks are built in a way that is secure against interference from whatever source, but also are competitive.”

“Foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services, which store and communicate vast amounts of sensitive information, facilitate the digital economy, and support critical infrastructure and vital emergency services, in order to commit malicious cyber-enabled actions, including economic and industrial espionage against the United States and its people.”

“Restricting Huawei from doing business in the US will not make the US more secure or stronger; instead, this will only serve to limit the US to inferior yet more expensive alternatives, leaving the US lagging behind in 5G deployment.”

“We are willing to sign no-spy agreements with governments, including the UK government, to commit ourselves to making our equipment meet the no-spy, no-backdoors standard.”

“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications. For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices. Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google.”

“It is very hard to present a security argument for this decision, although it is underpinned by US national security concerns regarding Huawei; this therefore looks more like a trade issue rather than a security issue per se.”

“China has not and will not demand companies or individuals use methods that run counter to local laws or via installing ‘backdoors’ to collect or provide the Chinese government with data, information or intelligence from home or abroad.”

“Huawei is something that’s very dangerous. You look at what they’ve done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it’s very dangerous. So it’s possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form, some part of a trade deal.”

 “By preventing American companies from doing business with Huawei, the government will directly harm more than 1,200 US companies. This will affect tens of thousands of American jobs. The US government has provided no evidence to show that Huawei is a security threat. There is no gun, no smoke. Only speculation.”

 “Google's ban on Huawei and the precedent it has set for other companies it set to affect competition in Europe and European consumers much more than in the United States where Huawei has not managed to establish a position of more than a single-digit share on the market for mobile devices. By contrast, in Europe, Huawei is a serious contender accounting for around 20% of the market. Any measure limiting Huawei's ability to effectively compete in Europe threatens to result in a material reduction of the competitive constraint that other device manufacturers experience.”