UK to the rescue over Huawei
AWAY out of our deepening rift with China has opened up. Courtesy, remarkably, of the United Kingdom. Historically, it has been New Zealand which rushed to Britain’s rescue. This time, it’s the other way around.
For reasons which would, undoubtedly, be very interesting to discover, the UK’s National CyberSecurity Centre (NCSC) has given the Chinese techgiant, Huawei, a pass.
Jacinda Ardern now has the excuse she needs to step back from the brink of diplomatic and economic disaster, by instructing our own Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to give a similar pass to SparkHuawei’s interrupted 5G deal.
In doing so, the PM will need to step away from her ridiculous claim that she and her colleagues have no control over the ultimate fate of the SparkHuawei 5G rollout. For that proposition to be true, we would have to accept that a decision vital to this country’s economic future has been delegated to an unaccountable civil servant whose judgement will tie the hands of the democraticallyelected government of New Zealand.
Fortunately, this is not the case. While the director of the GCSB will conduct his inquiries and make his report, as legally required, the final decision must rest with the Minister in Charge of the GCSB and the SIS, Andrew Little. Which will, in turn, be guided by the deliberations of his Cabinet colleagues — as befits a parliamentary democracy.
The fiction that the Huawei decision was out of her hands was devised by the PM as a way of putting as much distance as possible between her Government and the problems that were bound to flow from such a gratuitous slap in the face of New Zealand’s largest trading partner. But now, thanks to the NCSC, we no longer have to tie ourselves up in such obviously bogus knots.
Our NCSC saviours have, however, left the PM with another question to answer: Why did the GCSB believe Huawei constituted such an existential threat to New Zealand’s national security in the first place?
The NCSC boffins have made it clear that any potential cybersecurity threats can be relatively easily mitigated. The Financial
Times quotes Robert Hannigan, the former head of the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), as saying that the NCSC ‘‘never found evidence of malicious Chinese state cyber activity through Huawei’’. Suggestions that ‘‘any Chinese technology in any part of a 5G network represents an unacceptable risk are nonsense’’, harrumphed Hannigan.
All of which suggests that the GCSB was taking its lead from other members of the Five Eyes Agreement, namely the United States, Canada and Australia.
Additional domestic pressure may also have been applied by the fiercely proAmerican NZ Defence Force, whose Minister, NZ First’s Ron Mark, has clearly swallowed a hefty draught of Washington’s antiChinese KoolAid. Hardly surprising, really, given the vast quantities of the same beverage (notorious for inducing ‘‘Chinese threat’’ hallucinations) already imbibed by Mark’s boss, Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
Ardern needs no instruction when it comes to understanding the threat posed to the ‘‘international rulesbased order’’ by President Donald Trump. It may, however, be time for her to reconsider her initial assessment of Canada’s Justin Trudeau. His handling of the Huawei issue has been nothing short of woeful. As for the Australians: their embarrassing lesson in the dangers of preemptive obsequiousness is one our PM would be wise to file away for future use.
From the very start, the coordinated condemnation of
Huawei by the US, Canada and Australia has been laced through with the most poisonous hypocrisy. The very notion of these Five Eyes powers identifying China’s high tech companies as a major threat to the world’s cyber security is grotesque. No other combination of Western technological prowess has wreaked more havoc on the private communications of the world’s peoples. As Edward Snowden’s revelations made clear, the Five Eyes don’t just eavesdrop on their enemies, they listenin on their friends as well!
We can only hope that the grownups at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade who have, for the past week, been working roundtheclock to haul this Government back from the brink of a catastrophic rupture with China, have also taken a moment to remind the Prime Minister that an ‘‘independent’’ foreign policy dictated by the Americans is almost as absurd as a foreign ministry overseen by Winston Peters.
WELLINGTON: Britain’s top cyber security official says rigorous testing of Huawei equipment has so far revealed nothing of concern.
The head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, told a conference in Brussels yesterday it had subjected Huawei to the toughest oversight in the world and no problems had emerged.
But the Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), Andrew Little, told RNZ yesterday the briefing he received from security agencies in January was different from what Mr Martin had said.
‘‘Our regime is arguably the toughest and most rigorous oversight regime in the world for Huawei,’’ Mr Martin had said.
‘‘I would be obliged to report if there was evidence of malevolence . . . by Huawei. And we’re yet to have to do that. So I hope that covers it.’’
Mr Little highlighted two statements from Mr Martin.
‘‘I think two things he said was no evidence of malicious use and that they think they can manage Huawei technology in a network in a way that doesn’t compromise security . . .
‘‘When I was in the UK at the end of last month I met with the senior officials of some of their agencies, including the head of the GCHQ. It wasn’t quite the briefing that I got about them [Huawei].
‘‘Without disclosing the detail of that conversation what I say is that I came away from that conversation comfortable with the advice I had received from the GCSB here in New Zealand.’’
No evidence has been produced publicly about claims against Huawei and the company has repeatedly denied the claims.
Like New Zealand, Britain has yet to make a final decision on whether Huawei can play a role in its telecommunications networks.
Spark is still deciding whether or not it will submit a revised proposal to the GCSB in the hope of partnering with Huawei here. — Reuters