Huawei is now a multinational company and the world’s largest producer of electronic products. It has cooperative arrangements with 80 percent of the world’s telecom companies so it’s very common for its products to be integrated into all types of telecommunications systems. Huawei invests more than any of its competitors on research and development - an estimated US$15 billion in 2018. It has research institutes in 21 countries - including the US, UK and Canada, and has international programs to identify and employ the best and brightest technical graduates from universities. Huawei has a workforce of 170,000 and in 2017 its revenue was US$92.5 billion. 76,000 of its workforce are engaged in research and development. It is therefore not surprising that Huawei has been ahead of its competitors in developing the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications technology - 5G - that will be a key part of all advanced nations’ critical infrastructure into the future. Huawei is now more likely to be the target of industrial espionage and intelligence collection than the beneficiary of it.

In 2014 The New York Times reported (based on documents leaked by defector Edward Snowden) that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had since 2007 been operating a covert program against Huawei. This had involved breaking into Huawei's internal networks, including its headquarters’ networks and founder Ren Zhengfei's communications. Warnings about the security threat posed by Huawei first emanated from the US 10 years ago and seemed intended to benefit American competitors and prevent mergers or takeovers of American companies. In 2013, Michael Hayden, former head of NSA (and Director of Motorola Solutions), claimed that he had seen “hard evidence of backdoors” in Huawei's networking equipment, that Huawei engaged in espionage, and that it shared its knowledge of foreign telecommunications systems with the Chinese government. It should be noted that Huawei and Motorola Solutions had been engaged in intellectual property disputes for several years. Huawei's global cybersecurity officer, John Suffolk, described the comments made by Hayden as "tired, unsubstantiated, defamatory remarks" and challenged him and other critics to present any evidence publicly. They did not do so, but the US is under increasing pressure to provide more detailed public information, particularly after President Trump banned all government agencies and contractors from using Huawei and ZTE technology.

Five-Eyes partners Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK have since expressed similar concerns that the use of Huawei telecommunications equipment, particularly in 5G networks could pose "significant security risks". However, Canada is carrying out its own security review and the UK is still considering whether Huawei should be allowed to participate in the UK’s 5G rollout. Australia has always maintained higher protective security standards than the US to ensure the flow to Australia of critical US intelligence is not jeopardised. This probably led the Australian government to be the first to ban Huawei from contributing to its 5G network infrastructure; New Zealand then followed suit. The main security concern is that Huawei could be used by the Chinese government to engage in espionage and information warfare. (There is no available evidence that it has done so to date.) This is unfortunate for Huawei because the company seems focussed on being commercially successful - not on espionage or cyber warfare. The reality is that all national telecommunications companies cooperate with their national signals and security intelligence organisations because it is in their interest to do so. While China could force Huawei to do its bidding, it could also exploit vulnerabilities in products installed in Australia by leading US competitor companies like Qualcomm and Intel if it chose to do so. China is probably the world’s most advanced hacking nation as evidenced by the recent “Cloud Hopper” revelations.