Five Eyes’ future in innovation
The head of the US Senate intelligence committee has called for a Five Eyes innovation partnership to take on China.
The head of the powerful US Senate intelligence committee has called for the West’s Five Eyes alliance to take on China’s growing technological dominance in key areas such as 5G.
North Carolina senator Richard Burr said he believed “the mission” of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership would continue to grow to confront rising technological competition with China, which is marshalling the full force of its economy to become a world leader in communications and computing applications.
“The way forward is to do it the way we have done it for 100 years, and that’s to out-innovate our competition,” Senator Burr told The Australian. The senator, who chairs the US Senate select committee on intelligence, was in Australia this week for meetings with MPs and officials, and a tour of the top secret Pine Gap satellite surveillance base near Alice Springs.
He said the Five Eyes partnership, which comprises the US, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, had never been stronger or more important. While Five Eyes was created as an intelligence network, “that is not to say that as the world changes that the mission of those Five Eyes partners can’t be expanded”, he said.
“(Five Eyes) has had 60 years. I think every day we recognise a greater importance in the Five Eyes relationship. And that relationship, or the mission of Five Eyes partners, could grow tremendously in the future.
“That’s the threat to countries like China. To ignore that we are in a decade of technological explosion is to ignore what is happening around us.
“We have to accept the realities of where the world is going, and if in fact the options on the table today are unacceptable — and I would say in telecommunications, Australia and the US have made a similar decision — then we should also work together to find the solution to that.”
Chinese telco Huawei is the world leader in 5G technology. Fears that its technology could allow Chinese access to critical systems and infrastructure led to bans in Australia and the US on the company from participating in their next generation communications networks.
President Xi Jinping has also called for China to be the world leader in AI technology, branding it “a vital driving force for a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation”.
Senator Burr said Five Eyes allies had “a rich history of innovation” and should unite to counter the Chinese technology push.
“We have invested and we have challenged great minds in both our countries to reach past the discoveries of today and to try to make the discoveries of tomorrow.
“We ought to … challenge both of our tech communities and our brightest to come up with radio technology in silicone that makes Huawei’s technology obsolete.”
Amid rising concerns over Chinese intellectual property theft, Senator Burr said Five Eyes allies should also act to protect their research by mandating background checks on foreign partners.
“I think it is fair for Australia or for the United States to put conditions on who does research when it is government-funded research.”
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