Is America right to fear Huawei? | The Economist

Huawei is very dangerous rarely does a country go to war with a private company we have met the enemy and it is Huawei but America has done just that represents a national security route but is this really about Huawei or is it something bigger than that it's not can you trust Huawei it's can you trust the Chinese government and what is the threat this is exactly what China wants they want to divide Western alliances through bits and bytes not bullets and bombs may be somewhat sensible to open it yet so what is this wall really about and why is Huawei in the middle of it founded in China in 1987 Huawei is now the world's largest maker of telecoms equipment with revenues exceeding one hundred and three billion dollars when you think about qua way you might think about the handset that makes sense since it sold 200 million of them in 2018 alone but close to half of its revenue comes from selling network equipment and it's this infrastructure side of the company that worries governments for much more than the sort of consumer handset side with Ericsson and Nokia is one of the three biggest manufacturers of this equipment in fact since 2014 it's outgrown all its competitors reaching over three billion people this is how networks function your phone sends a signal to a nearby tower using radio waves voice and data are passed over an internal network run by your phone company which connects your handset to other phone users and the wider Internet in other words these antennas connect us all but now there's a new kind of network the race to 5g is moving forward at full speed from TV ads to presidential tweets you've probably heard debates about the revolutionary 5g although 5g is massively overhyped it is coming and Huawei is a leading force in this innovation it will be a sort of big change maybe not quite so enormous as as people like to tell you the other thing that people like to say that 5 you will enable is this idea of the Internet of Things if you want things like self-driving cars that download detailed maps where they're about to be you need 5g to do that if you want Internet connected door locks or CCTV cameras maybe five years away to connect those but though this computerized smart future opens up new possibilities it comes with a health warning we're moving to a world where everything will be connected to the Internet but we haven't thought enough about security that's the big fear about having a hostile power control your 5g network because if entire networks are vulnerable this opens the door to countries spying and then another 5g networks must be secure there must be strong they have to be guarded from the enemy in a rare interview with The Economist run Jiang Fei huawei's founder and CEO talks about the political storm surrounding his company maybe someone sent somebody open eg a teacher go and see their video which is a seeker some juice or something that's legal congee what it sends a hawker a seekers home as the argument rages over the security of Huawei's products the effects can be seen in some unexpected places the biggest issue I think with all of this political turmoil surrounding the Huawei name is uncertainty jofre now runs Eastern Oregon telecom a small network serving the people of this rural area in rural remote areas it's hard to connect with people and so the internet becomes this really important way to connect with community herb how you doing is that the network here relies on the huawei technology you see you're using the internet from Eastern Oregon telecom to be able to run monitor control all of these pivot irrigation systems I have no idea the Huawei equipment was 30 to 40% less than everything else on the market and it's more capable and more reliable this economic boob that's out here all of this effective agriculture that's going on out here would not be effective or even possible without internet connectivity it's a similar story around the world mobile phone users in developing countries have benefited from Huawei's attractive deals but how is far away undercutting its competitors Wow I can offer cheaper prices because they are heavily subsidized by the Chinese government these are allegations that are strenuously denied by Huawei Wow it is a hard way to much a stronger demand by way to tabular to Muhammad Ali Jo Gwang know whether or how far away is connected to and subsidized by the Chinese government is unclear but what is clear is this China is the kind of country if the party says jump all you can say is well how high loyalty to the state is actually enshrined in China's intelligence law article seven a 2017 edition states that any organization or citizen shall support assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work critics say this law means that when you buy Huawei equipment you may be exposing yourself to surveillance by the Chinese intelligence services and this makes government's very uncomfortable Wow is just a tool of the Chinese government China is a difficult country for any company to be independent in and when you look at that the new intelligence are you've got to have some concerns this has made a lot of people worried that Huawei given its close relationship to the Communist Party and given the Communist Party's willingness to wield hard power you could then end up in a situation where they can use that effectively as a weapon the fear is that Huawei will leave backdoor vulnerabilities in its networks there would provide China with an opportunity to spy on its competitors and enemies to counter this mistrust Huawei has shared its code and allowed the likes of Britain's national cybersecurity center to scan it for backdoors we do have researches to go through with a fine-tooth comb looking for exactly these they never found anything like that even so the Trump administration remains suspicious Huawei is something that's very dangerous president Trump's escalating trade war with China so if there's no solid security threat why is America making an enemy out of Huawei we cannot allow any other country to out-compete the United States in this powerful industry of the future at least part of this is motivated by desire to slow China's rise and to keep a world in which America is the dominant power for as long as possible it seems as though the concern over Huawei is not only about America's security but also its insecurity and it's causing collateral damage at home as well as abroad in May 2019 the Trump administration issued an executive order which not only forbade American companies from supplying Huawei with components but restricted domestic networks from using its equipment it's a move that feels like an own-goal to Americans like Joe for now worst case scenario is there's an all-out ban that means that three to six communities that are struggling desperate for broadband connectivity missing out on economic development opportunities having young people flee their community and never come back it would be a huge hit and there's another uncomfortable truth this America can't ignore smartphone technology relies on a truly global supply chain take an average smartphone some contain components from more than 200 international suppliers screens might be made by Samsung in South Korea the camera lens engineered in Germany the chip could be designed by a california-based company and manufactured in Taiwan the battery could come from Japan and the audio chip from China but increasingly hostility and lack of trust threaten to fracture these supply chains this goes beyond Huawei we are entering a period of increased vulnerability when it comes to cybersecurity in the Internet America's concerns about Kwame are understandable but the risks can be managed by limiting the use of Huawei equipment to less sensitive parts of 5g networks that way it is possible to benefit from the low cost of Huawei's equipment while minimizing security concerns you know we start talking about withdrawing and only doing business with companies that are really close allies or companies that are in the United States that damages the the global economy and the way that we function is a world billions of people around the world have benefited from increased connectivity made possible by global standards and global supply chains but if political mistrust devised the telecoms industry into rival camps everybody stand to lose if you want to learn more about Huawei you can click on the link opposite where you'll find further economic coverage and some research data and studies used to make this film thanks for watching if you want to see more films like this then hit the subscribe button in the link below [Music]

Channel: The Economist

Views: 2,200,922

Rating: 4.6476517 out of 5

Keywords: The Economist, Economist, Economist Films, Economist Videos, Politics, News, short-documentary, huawei, trade war, donald trump, xi jinping, huawei ban, 5g technology, trade war china vs usa, trade war explained, trade war with china, tariffs, us china trade war, china, china tariffs, us china

Id: 1ylleTbizgU

Length: 9min 57sec (597 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 12 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/killingzoo]

+ US targeted hacking of Huawei CFO's phone via malware, years ago before her arrest.

[u/BobToEndAllBobs]

The Economist is and always has been a mouthpiece for the western bourgeois.