VANCOUVER—A leaked report from a British cybersecurity agency — suggesting the risks of using Huawei technology in 5G infrastructure are manageable — will likely have little effect on Canada’s own assessment, security experts say.

The U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada co-operate on intelligence matters in an alliance referred to as the “Five Eyes.” Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. have all either banned or blocked Huawei from supplying equipment for their own 5G networks, fearing the company’s tech could allow the Chinese government to access user data or influence domestic infrastructure.

However, the more moderate report from the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is proof that the nations making up the Five Eyes will ultimately toe no line but their own, said a former officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

“States do not have friends. They have only interests,” said Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior manager and senior intelligence officer with CSIS. “So in the interest of the state, the U.K. has played not against its friends but to position itself with China.”

The calculus that goes into making such a security assessment is complicated by the fact that decisions on technology impact politics and the economy as well as national security, he said.

What the NCSC’s leaked assessment reflects is how the outcome of such a decision can be unique to each country, regardless of how closely one government is aligned with another.

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“It’s a game,” he said. “It’s just a question of finding the right balance all the time.”

Alliances are critical, he added, but in no way compromise any one country’s sovereign authority.

The NCSC’s security assessment, first reported on Sunday by the Financial Times citing confidential sources, has yet to be publicly released. But should its recommendations be adopted in British Parliament, the decision to stop short of a ban would buck the trend set by other Five Eyes allies.

A number of agencies within Canada’s federal government are currently collaborating on a similar review of the risks associated with the construction of 5G — considered to be the next major leap forward in connectivity.

An email from the office of Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to the Star on Monday confirmed the review is ongoing, though it stopped short of acknowledging Huawei in particular was under scrutiny.

Public Safety Canada, Global Affairs Canada, the Communications Security Establishment as well as Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada are all working together to ensure the final decision focuses on making 5G safe for Canadians, the email said.

Canada’s decision is further complicated by extraordinary tensions between Ottawa and Beijing, spurred by the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Dec. 1. The U.S. government has levelled 23 criminal charges against Huawei and Meng, related to alleged violations of U.S. trade sanctions. The U.S. is seeking Meng’s extradition.

Meng’s arrest outraged Beijing. Two Canadians — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — were subsequently detained in China. A third Canadian man, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, was given the death sentence in a Chinese court on drug charges for which he’d already been tried and sentenced.

But if the U.K. chooses to stop short of a wholesale ban on Huawei, it will permit Canada more political leeway to make an independent decision, said Wesley Wark, an intelligence expert who teaches at the University of Ottawa.

“Canadian officials will be cheering from the sidelines as the Canadian government ponders its own internal review of the threat posed by Huawei,” Wark said Monday. “The British approach, if it proves to be one of managed risk, will give Canada breathing space to resist the U.S. campaign and develop a similar strategy.”

The NCSC declined to comment on the leaked report but said in a statement it has “concerns” around Huawei’s engineering and security capabilities and has laid out improvements it expects the company to make.

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“The National Cyber Security Centre is committed to the security of U.K. networks, and we have a unique oversight and understanding of Huawei engineering and cybersecurity,” the statement reads.

But the NCSC’s leaked recommendation is not the same as state approval, said James Andrew Lewis, a former U.S. Commerce Department lead for national security and espionage concerns related to high-technology trade with China.

While all Five Eyes partners agree that Huawei is a risk, Lewis said Canada needs to move cautiously since there is yet disagreement about how that risk should be confronted.

“I think that if you are not careful with the decision on Huawei — and this goes for the Brits as well — it could create real strains,” said Lewis, now a senior vice-president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The U.S. in particular has been a vocal opponent of the possibility Huawei’s equipment could end up in Canadian networks, with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner being one of the foremost critics. Along with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, Warner — who serves as vice-chair of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee — has been part of a bipartisan push to sway Ottawa to ban Huawei from Canadian 5G.

“The United States and its allies need to maintain a common front against the supply chain risk of equipment from countries that do not respect the rule of law and that routinely place extrajudicial surveillance demands on domestic firms,” Warner told the Star on Tuesday via email.

While giving Huawei the green light could anger Canada’s largest training partner, the U.S. isn’t blind to the pressures its allies are under, Lewis said. Nor are Britain or Canada blind to the consequences of landing on a solution other than a ban.

The NCSC report should likewise be viewed in the context of Britain’s broader re-examination of its entire relationship with China, following the deterioration of what was once called the “Golden Era” of relations between the two countries, he added.

“The whole world is seeing an uptick in Chinese espionage and Chinese cyber-espionage,” he said.

“And what American officials are telling me is their views and the U.K. views are in alignment. That’s a quote: ‘in alignment.’ So I think it’s fair to say the NCSC, the U.K., is floating the idea of something other than a ban. But that’s to see what reaction it gets. It’s not a done deal.”

Having met with representatives from all Five Eyes intelligence partners, Lewis said it appeared the U.K. wouldn’t render a final decision on Huawei until the late spring, after the government has tackled Brexit.

While “intense discussion” will continue between the allies, said Lewis, the U.K.’s soft deadline means Canada still has time to ponder its path forward.

Correction — February 20, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the name of the government agency, Communications Security Establishment.

With files from Melanie Green and The Canadian Press

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