Huawei hits back at Malcolm Turnbull

The controversial Chinese telco has taken issue with comments the former PM made to Sky News.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull took a hard-line stance on Huawei as prime minister. Picture: AAP

Controversial Chinese telco Huawei has lashed out at comments by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who defended his decision to bar the company from building Australia’s 5G network in an interview with Sky News.

Mr Turnbull told Sky News on Wednesday morning that his decision in August 2018 to block Huawei, which he described as a “high-risk vendor”, was because 5G architecture made the risks much greater.

“In 5G where my government did take the decision to take high-risk vendors out of it because of the different nature of that network, because of the virtualisation of that network and the distributed processing of it there isn’t really an edge [to the network] in the way that there is in many of the traditional fixed-line networks,” he said.

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Mr Turnbull took a hard-line stance on Huawei as prime minister, after security agencies gave advice that the Chinese company’s equipment could contain back doors allowing access to spying.

Other “five eyes” nations, including the US and New Zealand, have banned Huawei from building their 5G networks, but countries including Canada, France and the UK have allowed it.

Huawei is currently appealing its ban in Australia, declaring that the country is being left behind in the global race to roll out 5G because of the decision.

The company said in a recent parliamentary submission: “If the potential influence of the Chinese Government is the reason for blocking Huawei from Australia’s 5G build, then such a ban should be considered for our competitors [Nokia and Ericsson].”

“With or without Huawei, Australia’s 5G technology will be made in China in factories half-owned by the Chinese government.”

Huawei Australia director of corporate and public affairs Jeremy Mitchell said Mr Turnbull was “simply wrong” and was relying on incorrect technical advice he was given as prime minister. Picture: AFP

In a statement to The Australian, Huawei Australia director of corporate and public affairs Jeremy Mitchell said Mr Turnbull was “simply wrong” and was relying on incorrect technical advice he was given as prime minister.

“It is very disappointing that Mr Turnbull continues to rely on factually incorrect information when commenting on his government’s decision to exclude Huawei from delivering 5G in Australia,” Mr Mitchell said.

“As has been seen from multiple real-world deployments of commercial 5G networks in countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain and South Korea operators are using Huawei technology in their Radio Access Networks and from other vendors in their core networks.

“This proves unequivocally that the Core and RAN networks can – and are – being split in 5G deployments in the real world – which disproves the incorrect advice he was given.”

In response to Mr Turnbull, Mr Mitchell also pointed to comments from the chair of the UK Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology Norman Lamb, who said there is a clear separation between core and (non-core) Radio Access Networks in a 5G network architecture.

“Although the Australian government has concluded that the distinction between core and non-core elements of 5G networks will be less clear than for previous technology generations, we heard unanimously and clearly that a distinction between the core and non-core elements of a 5G network will still exist,” Mr Lamb said.