The chorus of voices calling for Chinese companies to be frozen out of telecoms in western countries, especially future 5G networks, seems to grow daily. They cite a variety of concerns from cyber espionage to the dominance of the Chinese technology sector, underpinned by fears about the direction of China’s foreign policy.
All this is lumped together into a perceived cyber threat, which can only be met by a blanket ban. But these arguments are short on technical understanding of cyber security and the complexities of 5G architecture.
The allegations of sanctions evasion levelled against Huawei are not trivial. If proven, no doubt the company will face the penalties for sanctions-busting that others have in recent years, including some household names in UK banking. It may leave the company with work to do to restore its corporate reputation, but it has nothing to do with telephony or cyber attacks.