Huawei 5G ban ‘not enough’ to protect data, expert warns

Banning telco giant Huawei from the nation’s 5G rollout may not be enough to protect Australian data from China.

Professor Michito Tsuruoka says Australia and other nations needed to think about ways to persuade other countries to implement similar bans against Huawei. Picture: AFP

Banning telco giant Huawei from the nation’s 5G rollout may not be enough to protect Australian data from China, a Japanese national security expert has warned.

Michito Tsuruoka, an associate professor from Tokyo’s Keio University, said he doubted it was possible to build “a wall” against China if the superpower was rolling out its technology infrastructure in neighbouring nations.

“I don’t think it’s just building walls around the country,” he said.

“I’m not sure whether that’s enough, and we need to have more discussions because the essence of 5G is to be more connected. But to be connected only inside the ­country? I don’t think so.”

In August last year, the Australian government banned Huawei, the world’s largest producer of telecommuni­cations equipment, from taking part in the rollout of 5G mobile infrastructure over nationa­l security concerns, with analysts believing the telco’s equip­ment could be a conduit for espionage.

Professor Tsuruoka said Aust­ralia and other nations needed to think about ways to persuade other countries to implement similar bans against Huawei, which he said came with technical, economic and political concerns.

“For US allies, it’s about ­managing relations with the US but at the same time, for some countries, it is about managing relation­s with China,” he said.

“Excluding Huawei cannot be seen as a friendly act by Beijing, so some countries need to seriously think about that.”

Professor Tsuruoka said Australia and other nations needed to learn where to draw the line with China as the connection between companies and the Chinese Communist Party was often unclear.

“There’s always a need for Chin­ese money and Chinese invest­ment, some of which is very beneficial to local communities, local people and local governments,” he said.

“But you have to be careful about other types of more dubious investment, and that is why its really­ important to think about where to draw the line.”

Professor Tsuruoka said knowing when and where to draw the line with China was difficult and posed a problem to the world. “What’s acceptable and what’s unaccepta­ble is easy to say but in practice its really difficult and that’s not a problem unique to Australia,” he said. “All other countries, including Japan, the US, Europe as well as other countries, all have similar sort of homework.”