Technology: warning on 5G war
‘Politicising cybersecurity will hurt consumers’
CYBERSECURITY should not be politicised, and doing so will be detrimental globally as costs for communication will continue to rise while digital technology will remain stagnant.
Speaking at the 2019 Huawei Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, China, Huawei’s deputy chairperson and rotating chairperson, Ken Hu, pleaded that the ongoing international criticism and fears over the pursued 5G technology were misguided and influenced by politics.
Huawei and the US are currently at war over the usage of 5G, as Americans fear its global roll-out would compromise cybersecurity and increase spying.
US President Donald Trump has been leading the fight against Huawei’s 5G campaign.
The US government has banned Huawei from its mobile networks and was calling on all of its allies, including the UK, Europe and Australia, to avoid Huawei technology in the roll-out of ultra-fast 5G.
However, these efforts seem not to have hindered the company’s drive, as it has secured 40 commercial 5G contracts globally.
“This journey is like riding waves and we have to face these challenges. Personally, I think cybersecurity is not a political thing, but it’s a technical issue that needs a technical solution.
“We will do our own job to protect cybersecurity. “We should bring technology to itself, and not politics to technology.
“Politicising cybersecurity will be a big challenge that will increase costs to consumers. It will also bring challenges for all service providers and international trading,” said Hu.
John Suffolk, Huawei’s chief security officer, said the US government has not produced a shred of evidence to support its claims of spies taking advantage of Huawei’s 5G networks.
“The US is belittling national security...
“They should face up to the reality that technology is complicated, and should work together to solve the problems that we can.”
Suffolk added that the company had done all it could to invite American government to verify and examine its networks, but he said seemed the hurdle put in place by America was far more complicated.
“China is just another country. It has a different value system, a different political system, but they’re just people like you or I.
“What is the real fear? Is it because it’s China or because their technology is better than the US’s. The reality is, we’re a Chinese company, our founder is Chinese – that’s not his fault,” Suffolk said.
Huawei was expecting 5G to be the new driver of business as recent figures have been positive where 5G was present.
The technology was said to have already revolutionised other industries such as health, education and gaming where VR/AR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) were used.
“5G came to us faster than we expected. It’s a revolution and we are confident that by the year 2025 we will have 2.8 billion users covering at least 58% in the world.
“5G will make faster connection to the internet be a platform and not a pipe dream,” added Hu.
More than 700 guests from across the world attended the three-day annual summit, which was currently on its 16th year.
● Huawei paid for The Star’s journalist to attend the conference in China.