international education
campusreview.com.au
blow to Huawei, announcing it was
reviewing its contract with the company
to facilitate 4G communications for Perth’s
new rail network.
NEAR-UNIVERSAL UNI SUPPORT
Photo: Kevin Frayer, Getty images
Unis not spooked
Australian universities are embracing
Huawei, despite the global backlash
against the Chinese tech giant.
By Loren Smith
I
n his LinkedIn profile photo, Weijing Wang
resembles a typical businessman. He
wears a fitted navy suit, a starched white
shirt and a blue striped tie. He has his hands
clasped in the typical headshot manner. His
eyes are as soft as his wan smile. He looks
utterly innocuous. But, according to Poland,
he’s a spy for the Chinese government.
On Friday 11 January 2019, the public
relations manager was detained by local
counter intelligence officials and charged
with espionage.
Huawei, a company whose Warsaw
office he had worked in for over 12 years,
fired him the next day. They stressed that
there was no connection between Wang’s
alleged illegal activities and the company.
Others aren’t so sure: this was just
the latest in a vast, global litany of
spying-related incidents involving the
telecommunications conglomerate, dating
back to the mid-2000s.
The company allegedly spies on other
countries by implanting ‘backdoors’ or
microscopic beacons in its equipment
that enable surveillance by the Chinese
government, including its military –
which Huawei’s founder worked for as a
technologist.
8
WESTERN WITHDRAWAL
In response to this, major Western
governments, including Australia’s, have
ceased current collaborations or refused
potential partnerships with the company
– the 72nd largest in the world – despite
there being no evidence of collusion
with the Chinese government to carry
out surveillance.
In August last year, Prime Minister Scott
Morrison announced Huawei would
no longer be providing the wireless
infrastructure for the new 5G network.
The US and New Zealand hold similar
positions with respect to their 5G plans.
“While we are protected as far as possible
by current security controls, the new
network, with its increased complexity,
would render these current protections
ineffective in 5G,” the government said.
Paradoxically, in a recent speech
delivered in Singapore, Defence Minister
Christopher Pyne said: “There is no gain in
stifling China’s growth and prosperity.”
The overall anti-Huawei message is
strong in the West. The US, for example,
is currently threatening Huawei with a
trade embargo, after the country charged
the company’s CFO with breaches of
international trade sanctions against Iran.
It has also advised its Five Eyes intelligence
allies – the UK, Australia, New Zealand
and Canada – to carefully consider
collaborating with Chinese companies
including Huawei.
In light of the US’s actions, the WA
government recently delivered another
Institutions, too, have recently suspended
ties with Huawei, one prominent example
being Oxford University.
Australian universities, however, don’t
seem so concerned. In fact, the Australian
Technology Network of Universities (ATN),
including UTS, RMIT, UniSA, Curtin and JCU,
continues to bolster ties with Huawei. Seeds
for the Future is an annual three-week work
experience program offered to 30 students
who attend these universities. Established
as part of the government’s New Colombo
Plan, it involves a trip to China – including a
stint at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen.
Now in its sixth year, the program shows no
signs of stopping.
The ATN does not appear to be worried
about its collaboration with Huawei. A
spokesperson provided that the network
“is not aware of any reason to change
its involvement in the program, but is
monitoring global events and will of
course be happy to take direction from
the Australian government if they have any
concerns, as part of their administration of
the New Colombo Plan”.
However, this isn’t the only form of
collaboration between Australian universities
and Huawei. JCU, for example, co-founded
a Narrowband Internet of Things lab with
the tech giant to develop the technology
to connect various devices across mobile
networks. Huawei contributed both
technology and research funds – totalling
over $1 million – to finance the lab.
Is this cause for national security
concern? Daniel Christie, head of
engineering at JCU, doesn’t think so.
In fact, he’s confident that the university’s
partnership with Huawei “does not pose
any security risks”, as the lab isn’t connected
to any campus network.
He clarified how JCU’s Huawei-related
activities differ from the government’s
formerly proposed 5G ones: “It’s important
to understand how different Narrowband
IoT research is from the 5G rollout ... It’s not
a broadband network operation.”
Southern Cross University has gone
a step further, becoming a Huawei
Authorized Information and Network
Academy in December last year. This
means the university facilitates Huawei