Huawei pleads its case over 5G network contract

Huawei has sent a letter to federal MPs defending the company’s capacity to bid for 5G contracts.

Huawei is being prevented from building Australia’s 5G network. Picture: AFP

Chinese telecommunications ­behemoth Huawei has sent a letter to federal MPs defending the company’s capacity to bid for 5G contracts and dismissing security concerns as “ill-informed” and “not based on facts”.

The company wrote to each MP on Friday — in a letter signed by local chairman John Lord and board director and former Victorian premier John Brumby — as speculation mounts the government will use recent foreign security laws to bar Huawei from bidding for the provision of equipment for Australia’s 5G networks.

“Recent public commentary around China has referenced ­Huawei and its role in Australia and prompted some observations around security concerns. Many of these comments are ill-informed and not based on facts,” the letter says. “We are a private company, owned by our employees with no other shareholders. In each of the 170 countries where we operate, we abide by the national laws and guidelines. To do so otherwise would end our business overnight.”

The expectation Australia will block Huawei from the 5G market comes after Malcolm Turnbull last week agreed with the Solomon ­Islands to help fund an ­undersea internet cable between Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomons. The deal prevented Huawei from building the link.

The company said in its letter to MPs that it would be shut out of the entire Australian market if it was excluded from the 5G market.

It noted that other countries had used Huawei’s technology within their national security frameworks.

“With our 5G investments in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, the respective governments have taken up our offers for evaluation of our technology to ensure it abides by its cyber­security protocols,” the letter said.

“In our ongoing discussions with Australian government agencies about our 5G proposal, Huawei has also offered to build an evaluation and testing centre to ensure independent verification of our equipment right here in Australia.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong yesterday said Chinese companies did not have the same separation from the government as Australian companies did. “I think some of the discussion about Huawei, or any company in this space, misunderstands what we are talking about. China is a one-party state; it’s a communist state,” Senator Wong told the ABC.

A spokeswoman for Home ­Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said: “The government will determine whether changes to the telecommunications network or other critical infrastructure pose a risk to national security and provide this advice to industry on a case-by-case basis.”