Loading When Turnbull's own government banned Huawei from supplying equipment for Australia's 5G mobile networks earlier this year, there was a similar outcry. There were concerns about a diplomatic incident with Beijing, claims of xenophobia, warnings from Huawei's telco customers that it would set back the nation's mobile services, and strongly worded criticism of Canberra in Chinese state-controlled media. All of which is to say, Australia has been out on a limb when it comes to Huawei for quite a while now. But not anymore. In recent weeks, the vendor, which was founded by a former member of the People's Liberation Army, has run into strife in New Zealand, the UK, the US and Canada. As it turns out, these countries, together with Australia, form the 'Five Eyes' intelligence sharing alliance. Overnight, Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada and extradited to the US. The shock development emerged just hours after British Telecom, one of the UK's largest internet service providers, said it would remove Huawei's equipment from the core of its mobile networks. Days earlier, the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency issued his own stern warning about the company.

A profile of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is displayed on a Huawei computer. Credit:AP And just last week, New Zealand's top intelligence agency blocked Huawei from supplying equipment for a 5G network being planned by Spark Telecom. The arrest of Huawei's CFO (who happens to be the daughter of the company's powerful founder) is certain to inflame diplomatic tensions between the US and China. Canada's Globe and Mail, which broke the news of the arrest, said it was based on the belief she had violated America's trade embargo with Iran. Which would mean it is less about cyber-security than trade. But it has hard to disentangle the two, with the US and China engaged in a cold war over trade with tech at its core, and long-term military supremacy potentially at stake. As we recently wrote, the US increasingly views China's technology sector as a strategic threat to the country's dominant position globally. US officials have long bemoaned intellectual property theft by China (something Huawei itself has been accused of engaging in).

Loading A key US government agency recently proposed restrictions on exports of emerging technologies that could be critical for the security of America and its allies- similar to the kind of controls it places on exports of weaponry and military equipment. Whoever dominates those advanced technologies - which include artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing - will likely be in a dominant position economically, politically and militarily. In Australia, experts are also concerned about cyber-security attacks against our institutions and businesses emanating from China. For example, consider recent reports in this newspaper that China’s peak security agency directed a surge in cyber attacks on Australian companies over the past year; and that internet traffic heading for Australia was diverted to China for a six-day period.