Double standards kill business deals
It is not rare for politics to disrupt business deals involving Chinese companies in some Western countries. But such an ill-wind seems to be blowing even harder, as Australia has upheld its broadband ban on China’s telecom company Huawei, and Turkey has postponed a missile deal with China under pressure from Washington and Brussels.
On Oct 29 Australia maintained a ban issued by the previous Labor administration preventing Huawei from bidding for the country’s national high-speed Internet program. The decision was disappointing as it dimmed hopes that the controversial policy would be relaxed under the new Australian government led by Tony Abbott.
Australian Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Trade Minister Andrew Robb publicly showed their support for reviewing the ban, but just two days after their remarks, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott reportedly ruled out any involvement by Huawei in the broadband project.
The previous Labor administration had cited national security reasons for shutting the door on Huawei last year. But considering the Chinese world-leading telecom giant has been entrusted with business deals with high security requirements in Europe, the administration’s decision was not at all convincing and it is widely believed that the move was politically motivated.
In recent years, Huawei has been repeatedly rejected in its attempts to gain a foothold in the United States due to so-called national security concerns raised by the US Committee on Foreign Investment. Last year, the US issued a congressional report, alleging that Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom company, pose a security threat to the US and should be barred from US contracts and acquisitions.
In fact, Chinese technology companies, Huawei included, have been playing an increasing role in boosting economic and social development in other countries with their expanding international cooperation. Huawei announced this week that a free training program will benefit about 1,000 female university students in Nigeria. This is just one small example of the way in which the company has committed itself to localization, technological transfer and employment promotion when it carries out cooperation worldwide.
In Europe, Huawei assisted in the search for the Higgs boson at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, by providing a cloudbased Universal Distributed Storage system to meet the challenges of data storage and analysis.
The fact that Huawei has been accepted in many countries around the world but is unfairly treated in the US and Australia is because some are still imposing double standards when it comes to Chinese companies.
Beijing urged Australia to establish a fair environment for enterprises from both nations shortly after Abbott’s decision was announced. “China has always opposed pleading national security as an excuse for disturbing normal economic and trade cooperation between two countries,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily news briefing.
Abbott announced last month in Bali, Indonesia, that Australia is looking to conclude negotiations on a free trade agreement with China next year. Relaxing the ban on Huawei would be one way of promoting trade and economic ties with Beijing, and sound and rising economic cooperation between the two countries certainly includes promotion and facilitation of mutual investments.
Considering that Washington and Canberra obviously side with each other on the issue of Huawei, Abbott should also be advised that Australia does not necessarily need to follow in every footstep of the US.
As to the enormous pressure the US and NATO put on Turkey over its proposed missile deal with China, it is not the first time that the US, despite its huge earnings from arms exports, has opposed China’s arms sales to other countries. Over the past years, military deals between China and Israel have been called off several times due to US interference.
Its status as the world’s biggest arms dealer does not give Washington the right to point an accusing finger at the arms trade of others. Turkish officials have said that China offered the best price as well as co-production arrangements.
Before Western countries such as the US redress their discriminatory attitude toward Chinese companies and treat them as equals, it is hypocritical for them to complain about China’s investment environment, and they know full well that China has granted preferential treatment to foreign investors in recent years.