China angry at Australia’s warnings on Huawei

China calls Australian warnings that countries shouldn’t use Huawei for 5G ‘disgraceful and immoral’.

The Huawei issue has become a running sore on the relationship between Australia and China. Picture: AFP

China has accused Australia of “disgraceful and immoral conduct” in urging other countries to follow its decision to ban Huawei from supplying equipment for its 5G network.

In comments made on Thursday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused Australia of “blatant discrimination” against Chinese companies with its move last year to ban Chinese telecommunications companies from supplying equipment for the upcoming 5G network.

She said the decision had been made “under the pretext of national security”.

She said Australia had followed this up by “lecturing” other countries to urge them to follow its decision on 5G, moves which would “hurt” Australia’s interests.

Ms Hua was responding to a question about comments made by former prime minister Tony Abbott in an interview that Britain should ban Chinese companies from supplying equipment for its 5G network rollout, and reports this week that Australian officials had warned India of the dangers of allowing Chinese vendors to participate in its 5G network.

The Australian reported this week that Australian government officials had warned their Indian counterparts about the dangers of allowing “high risk vendors” such as Huawei to supply 5G equipment during a visit to New Delhi last week.

The comments were reportedly made during a visit led by Australian ambassador for cyber affairs, Tobias Feakin, for the Third India Australia Cyber Dialogue.

They come as India is considering whether to allow Huawei to participate in its 5G network.

A ban on Chinese telecommunications suppliers by India for its 5G network would be a huge blow to Huawei, given the size of its potential market.

“Under the pretext of national security, Australia was the first country to ban Chinese companies from its 5G network rollout without any evidence of risks,” Ms Hua said.

“It is blatant discrimination against Chinese companies.”

“Australia has also been lecturing other countries about the 5G network and encouraging them to follow suit,” she said.

“Such disgraceful and immoral conduct is against basic market principles and international rules, which China firmly opposes.

“We advise some in Australia not to overstep their bounds, to not go further astray on their wrong path and to stop doing things that hurt the interests of Australia itself and others.”

The strong language by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a further sign of anger in Beijing over Australia’s very public 5G decision to ban Huawei last August and subsequent public and private comments by some Australians urging other countries to follow suit.

With the Trump administration attacking Huawei, the company is continuing to hope that it can supply markets in Asia and Europe with 5G equipment.

While other countries such as Japan are believed to have quietly decided against using Huawei for 5G and New Zealand and Canada are still considering their position, Beijing is clearly angry at what it sees as private warnings by some Australians to officials in other countries against Huawei as well as public comments by former prime ministers Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

While relations between Canberra and Beijing were strained before the 5G decision last August, the issue has become a running sore on the relationship with Australia’s most important trading partner, with the Chinese seeing it as harming Huawei’s international expansion potential.

No Australian prime minister has visited China since former prime minister Turnbull was in Hangzhou in September 2016 for a meeting of G20 leaders, and no Chinese leader has visited Australia since the visit of Chinese premier Li Keqiang in March 2017.

Australian ministers have also reported to have had difficulties securing bilateral meetings with their Chinese counterparts in recent months.

Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham visited Beijing last month but this was for a multilateral meeting of regional trade ministers to continue negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. (RCEP).