Developing countries have signed Huawei agreements despite warnings of U.S. espionage

Huawei’s warnings about espionage do not deter African, Asian and Latin American governments from hiring a Chinese technology team for cloud infrastructure and e-government services, a study has found.

A report by the Washington CSIS think tank in the Financial Times identified 70 agreements in 41 countries between Huawei and governments or state-owned companies for such services from 2006 to April this year.

Cloud infrastructure typically refers to the installation of data centers, and e-government primarily involves the automation of administrative functions such as licensing, health, legal records, and other government processes.

“Huawei’s cloud infrastructure and e-government services are managing sensitive data on citizen health, taxes and legal records,” according to the study.

“Huawei is providing a niche as a supplier to government and state-owned enterprises, building a strategic position that the Chinese authorities can provide with valuable intelligence as well as consistent strength,” the study added.

Most of the countries involved in these deals with Huawei were in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, and 77% of them fell into the “non-free” or “partly free” categories, Freedom House estimates the US government-funded democracy watchdog group.

“With the rise in agreements announced since 2018, including several announcements during 2020, it is clear that Huawei’s security risk warnings are not making decisions in developing countries,” the CSIS report written by Jonathan Hillman and Maesea McCalpin said.

“As a cloud infrastructure and service provider, Huawei does not control or monitor customer data,” Huawei said in a statement.

“All customer data is in the hands of our customers and is fully controlled.”

“Protecting cyber security and protecting users’ privacy are Huawei’s top priorities, ”the company added.

The US has repeatedly denounced Huawei Spying for the Chinese government, sometimes exploiting the “back doors” of telecommunications on their equipment. Washington has also positioned Huawei and many of its affiliates. “entity list”, Limiting the sale of critical technologies such as semiconductors to the company.

China has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, accusing the U.S. of “abusing national power” by imposing sanctions on Huawei. The Chinese champion, the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, has had to do it cut phone production due to supply shortages.

The CSIS report cited several examples of security failures related to Huawei’s cloud infrastructure and e-government services. According to a 65-page report funded by the Australian government, there was a data center built by Huawei for Papua New Guinea significant errors which would make the facility vulnerable to hacking.

Huawei also won a contract to place communications equipment inside the Addis Ababa headquarters building in Addis Ababa in 2012 after African Union officials complained China Hacking the building’s computer systems every night for five years and downloading confidential data.

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