I can remember some years ago reading the headlines in the
news “UK security committee ‘shocked’ over Huawei contract with BT” as BT choose
China’s Huawei company as a vendor to supply equipment for what was going to be
BT’s grand 21cn Network (Huawei’s bid beat Marconi Systems)
It especially piqued my interest as I worked then (and now)
for BT and had been on a couple of training courses for BT ran by Huawei down
near London and I must say Huawei certainly looked after us by providing stationary
(I am sure I still have my Huawei pencils and note pads somewhere) and buying
us lunch (well if feeding you pizza until you are fit to burst is the new water
boarding I may have grounds to complain) and presenting us with gifts once the
course was finished.
It certainly did not feel like bribery or the attempt to recruit
us into being an agent of People’s Liberation Army of China and give up secrets
of BT, I would have loved to have considered myself like a character from a John
le Carre novel but the boring truth is it was all above board and I for one
know of no technological telecom wisdom secrets I could have sold my soul for a
few Chinese Yuan Renminbi, but if the price is right I’m open for recruitment
(joke…before BT revoke my employment). (Incidentally Huawei was founded in 1988 by Ren Zhengfei, a former
officer in the People's Liberation Army, but formed as a private company)
But still it was immensely interesting to hear about Huawei
who were then the world’s second biggest supplier of telecoms equipment being
charged for cyber espionage but I guess there is always that danger when
sourcing from abroad.
Surely in these days of technological advancement with cyber
security and the hacking of systems for commercial and military secrets there
should be some safety measures in place regarding the UK’s inward investment policy and its national
security policy when dealing with “the enemy” but with more recent news it
seems the UK authorities are still not doing enough to manage that risk and I
now read in the news that they is ever growing pressure from the USA that we
get our house in order.
Now years later from BT’s indulgence and another Huawei
contract signed with the 5G networks and the government has still not put in
place proper procedures to evaluate any major investment by a foreign company
in the UK’s critical national infrastructure but then again it’s a trade-off is this: Huawei’s 5G technology is
the world’s most advanced and likely to be cheaper than the alternatives
developed by Nokia of Finland and Ericsson of Sweden, but unlikely ever to be
safe enough for the transmission of secrets so perhaps chances had to be taken.
We dance with the devil as we like a good cheap deal but let’s hope the integrity
of our country is not at risk here.
