Chinese tech giant Huawei has dominated headlines this year. The company is a world leader in 5G technology the company and has a close connection to the Chinese government, which makes many Western leaders nervous. Is it too risky for Huawei to help build Canada’s 5G network? Brian Lee Crowley of the Macdonald Laurier Institute argues yes, while Stockwell Day, the former Leader of the Opposition, Telus board member and member of the Canada China Business Council argues no.

5G is the 5th generation of wireless technologies that have resulted in the evolution of mobile devices from unwieldy radio-telephones to sophisticated tiny smartphones and tablets. Once fully in place 5G, however, will be a significant leap in speed and capacity, eventually enabling the long-foretold internet of Things.

Driverless cars will be possible because they need to communicate wirelessly with each other in real time to avoid accidents. Trucks and other heavy equipment and possibly even massive infrastructure, like electricity distribution and their operators, can be miles apart. We will all send evermore sensitive and confidential data across the 5G network.

Because our safety, privacy and prosperity will depend on the security and reliability of 5G, who supplies the network equipment is a real national security concern. Malign actors with clandestine access to the system can pose both passive and active dangers. Passive actions include things like data theft; active ones include interfering with the networks and devices reliant on 5G for their operation.

Huawei, is among a handful of suppliers worldwide (including Qualcomm, Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia) that are able to provide the “backbone” equipment for 5G networks. Here is where the passive and active dangers reside.

A supplier could, for example, use the system’s inherent complexities to obscure features causing data passing through the system to be copied and sent on to a distant location for analysis, compromising commercial or military secrets. Hidden “back doors” might allow those with the key to seize control of networks and devices, like stock markets, heavy equipment or electricity grids.

Precisely because of 5G’s complexity, no one can certify backbone equipment “safe,” especially since changes might be introduced later by repairs and software upgrades, or gradually through those hard-to-discover back doors. That makes the trustworthiness of suppliers paramount.

By now Canadians are painfully aware that China is a rising power and, under the Communist Party (CCP), is a strategic rival of the West’s and its values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Where 5G is concerned, everything hangs on whether we should regard Huawei as a Trojan horse for the interests of a CCP regime seeking geostrategic advantage.

Here is what we know. Huawei, whose ownership is nontransparent, maintains close and co-operative relations with the People’s Liberation Army, which Huawei has gone to some lengths to obscure. Its impressive growth is largely due to Beijing’s policy of promoting national champions in strategic sectors.

Let us not forget that Beijing kidnapped two of our citizens and threw up barriers to our exports — all because we had the temerity to arrest a single Huawei executive in accordance with Canadian law. This is no arm’s length relationship.

Huawei has been accused by various national security agencies of being intimately involved in intellectual property theft through electronic espionage. Huawei equipment has been credibly implicated in passive data theft operations.

Finally, Chinese law compels companies like Huawei to assist with state intelligence work and to maintain Communist Party cells in their management structure. There is every reason to regard Huawei as an agent of the CCP regime, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.

Additionally, the quality of Huawei’s engineering is poor, introducing further, possibly unintended, vulnerabilities that could be exploited by Russia, Iran, North Korea and others.

Ottawa already forbids Huawei equipment from federal government telecoms networks for exactly these security reasons. Having banned Huawei from 5G on security grounds, Washington is unlikely to regard with equanimity a Canadian back door, meaning the integration of Canadian and American networks might well be compromised as might our invaluable national-security intelligence sharing through the Five Eyes network.

The Big Debate:

Canada must engage China but must energetically defend our vital interests and foundational values while doing so. Vigilance is compatible with further engagement: Australia and New Zealand, which have free trade agreements with Beijing, have banned Huawei from 5G.

The future lies with 5G but we must thoughtfully manage the associated vulnerabilities. Both Huawei’s behaviour and that of its CCP overlords is such that Canada should follow the U.S., Australia and New Zealand and forbid Huawei’s involvement in 5G.

Get this wrong and the bitterness of compromised safety will remain long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

Brian Lee Crowley is managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

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As Canada’s minister of public safety, sharing responsibility for cyber security files, I would awaken every day (and some nights) with the challenge of fortifying the most important responsibility of any government: the safety and security of its citizens.

To that end, the issue of the safety of Huawei products has been a focus of mine for over a decade, predating my tenure as a director at one of Canada’s telecoms.

Canada has a world recognized capability of detecting, analyzing and mitigating cyber threats. France, Germany and Israel, for instance, none of which have banned Huawei, share similar capabilities.

Canada’s vigorous cyber security protocols, developed with the Canadian Security Establishment and other agencies in full co-operation with the industry, are recommended by security experts in the U.K. and around the globe as somewhat of a gold standard. As a matter of public policy, all telecom suppliers, (and certainly with the nature of the global supply chain) not just Huawei, should be subject to these stringent cyber security protocols.

The fact is, Huawei is the global leader in 5G wireless network R&D and manufacturing (with some suggesting a one-year to 18-month lead over competitors) in over 120 countries.

In Canada, Huawei employs over 1,000 Canadian engineers and technicians. In 2018, Huawei invested $180 million in Canada in R&D and is on track in 2019 for $200 million. That puts Huawei in the top 20 of corporate investors into Canada (and allowed Canadian engineers to contribute to 5G chip sets and software algorithms that will power cellular systems and cellphones.)

THE BIG DEBATE: For more opposing view columns from Toronto Star contributors, click here.

Huawei technologies have been safely engineered into the non-core areas of our wireless networks. These include the antenna sites called Radio Access Networks (RANs), which do not carry personal or national security data.

Banning these non-core devices would have significant economic and technology consequences dragging us backward in the international race to implement 5G. A recent study by Bloomberg points out the nations that are already ahead in 5G will attain significant economic gains and export advantages.

Until recently, Canada was recognized by Ookla Speedtest having attained second place among the world’s best networks in speed and coverage. As we wait for a decision on Huawei we have slipped to third place and are likely to slip further. Banning Huawei would also imperil the progress in rural conductivity. Huawei’s RAN systems and equipment are the most efficient, adept and cost effective, reaching more square kilometres and end users across Canada’s vastness.

On the question “to ban or not to ban” we must work through economic and political issues. Some say “Ban Huawei” because of violations by others in China relating to patent and proprietary laws. However, patent theft also exists in hundreds of American and Canadian cases before courts in North America annually, involving billions of dollars in damages.

We don’t ban U.S., Canadian or European companies because of that reality. Instead, we work to develop more effective legal and commercial remedies. Interestingly, the less than a handful of international companies that are developing 5G, also do significant R&D in China.

Others say “Ban Huawei” because of China’s human rights issues. I share these concerns. And I unhesitantly bring them up in China, as I did on a recent trip there, specifically citing the untenable plight of Canada’s “Two Michaels.”

In our global community, democratic nations like Canada have extensive relationships with over 80 non-democratic nations, which impose severe human rights restrictions. We do not ban businesses from those 80 countries.

As a matter of international law, it is a United Nations and WTO violation to ban a business simply because of its country origin.

We hope for a resolution of this conflict, which has trapped Canada between two geopolitical giants, China and the U.S. President Trump has admitted the detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou can be played by the U.S. in trade negotiations. Canada can ill afford any such game.

Other nations with savvy cyber security expertise, like ours, have seen past the trade war and approved the managed use of certain 5G Huawei infrastructure. The answer on Huawei is not a simple “yes” or “no.” It is how; how to safely use infrastructure from any global supply chains to power our future economy. Our citizens deserve no less.

Editor’s note: This column is the position of Stockwell Day and not necessarily the full position of the Canada China Business Council.

Stockwell Day is a former minister of Public Safety and minister of International Trade. He presently serves on the board of Telus, at McMillan LLP as an adviser, and is a member of the Canada China Business Council.

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