Chinese anger over Australia’s 5G ban on Huawei

Beijing has accused the federal government of ‘all kinds of excuses’ about its move to ban Huawei from the 5G network.

Australian Signals Directorate director-general Mike Burgess. Picture: Kym Smith

Beijing has accused the federal government of making “all kinds of excuses” about its move to ban Chines­e telecommunications giant Huawei from Australia’s next-­generation 5G network.

Responding to comments by the director-general of the Aust­ralian Signals Directorate, Mike Burgess, that he recommended a ban on Huawei and China’s ZTE from supplying equipment for 5G, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang accused the federal government of discriminating against Chinese companies.

Mr Lu said the government had an “ideological bias” against Chin­ese technology companies. “The Chinese government always ­encourages Chinese enterprises to observe international rules and laws when carrying out economic co-operation overseas,” he said, adding that there was “mutual ­benefit” in Chinese and Australian companies working together.

“The Australian side should ­facilitate such co-operation … ­instead of finding all kinds of ­excuses to obstruct co-operation and taking discriminatory measures. We urge the Australian side to discard its ideological bias and offer a level playing field for Chinese ­enterprises to compete in Aust­ralia. We hope that the Australian side could approach this issue ­prudently.”

The comments follow a speech by Mr Burgess on Monday night, in which he said his agency had ­recommended a ban on Chinese companies supplying equipment for Australia’s 5G network.

He described the Chinese compani­es as “high-risk” vendors, adding that the stakes were high in building a 5G network. “Getting ­security right for our critical infrastructure is paramount,” he said.

Mr Burgess said the Australian Signals Directorate had worked with the government to see if there were ways to protect the 5G network “if high-risk vendor equipment was present”. “At the end of this process, my advice was to ­exclude high-risk vendors from the entirety of evolving 5G networks,” he said.

He said 5G technology would “underpin the communications that Australians rely on every day, from our health systems and the potential applications of remote surgery, to self-driving cars and through to the operation of our power and water supply”.

The move to ban Chinese telecommunications companies from the 5G network was announced in the last days of the Turnbull governm­ent in late August.

The government did not specific­ally name Huawei and ZTE, but said it would be blocking companies that were “likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law”.

It said allowing such companies to supply telecommunications equipment could “pose an inordin­ate risk to a 5G network”.

The decision followed similar moves in the US.

Huawei has been a long-time supplier of equipment in Australia, including technology for the 4G network to Optus and Vodafone.

It had been trying to work with the government to look at how to put a framework around its equipment in a way that could satisfy any security concerns. Mr Burgess’s comments indicated his agency had investigated the idea but rejecte­d it because 5G would be critical national infrastructure.