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View Full Version : Australia National Broadband Network will go ahead without one large Chinese company



GEZA
2012-03-27, 07:43 PM
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 26/03/2012
Reporter: Heather Ewart
Tenders for the National Broadband Network will go ahead without one large Chinese technology company, due to security concerns and despite the protestations of people such as former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Transcript
CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: Cyber espionage is up there with terrorism in the top threats to national security identified by intelligence agencies worldwide, and the usual suspect is China, which the FBI says has an army of 180,000 cyber-spies targeting its friends and foes. Concerns over their activities have caused the Gillard Government to block the Chinese technology giant Huawei from taking part in tenders for the multi-billion-dollar National Broadband Network. The move, which followed security advice from ASIO, has sparked furious denials from the company's Australian board members who include former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Heather Ewart reports.

HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: The Government's ambitious $36 billion National Broadband Network, unveiled with great fanfare, meant big business for companies keen to get a slice of the action. One of them was the Chinese technology giant Huawei which put in a bid to supply equipment.

JEREMY MITCHELL, CORP. AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, HUAWEI AUST.: Our credentials are second to none in this area. We are the world leader in fibre networks and we believe we have a lot to contribute to the Australian NBN.

HEATHER EWART: That wasn't going to happen. What unfolded was a complicated web going to the heart of national security concerns. The second largest telecommunications company in the world was effectively banned from the NBN and linked to cyber attacks by the Chinese Government with no evidence offered.

ALASTAIR MACGIBBON, CYBER SECURITY EXPERT: The Australian Government is actually doing what many of us would hope it would, which is standing up and saying that security is one of the key considerations that you have to build in at the foundation level of the National Broadband Network.

HUGH WHITE, STRATEGIC & DEFENCE STUDIES CENTRE, ANU: The key question for the Government on this is whether or not the security risks which may well flow from hiring a Chinese company to build a broadband network are so great that they justify the costs that will flow from this kind of very pointed and deliberate exclusion of them.

HEATHER EWART: This is a story that's viewed as a test case for Australia's trade relationship with China, one that's created frictions between government departments; a story that involves intelligence warnings from our own agencies, along with advice from the United States, based on a belief that cyber ****ing by the Chinese Government is on the increase.

Huawei was considered a security threat and those on its Australian board, former Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby along with the former Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, were powerless to do much about it.

ALEXANDER DOWNER, IND. DIRECTOR, HUAWEI AUST.: This sort of whole concept of Huawei being involved in cyber warfare, presumably that would just be based on the fact that the company comes from China and everybody in China is - who's involved with information technology is involved in cyber warfare. This is just completely absurd.

HEATHER EWART: Matters came to a head here at the Attorney-General's Department in Canberra just before Christmas, when Huawei's Australian chairman, retired Rear Admiral General John Lord, was told by the department's deputy secretary not to bother applying for any NBN supply contracts because they'd fail. The company was stunned.

Isn't the game all over for you?

JEREMY MITCHELL: Look, can I address security and our company? I mean, we are and have been delivering the National Broadband Network equivalent in the United Kingdom for the last six years with absolute no problems in our company, in our work, our staff, the ability of our equipment. So, I think that is the greatest calling card for Huawei.

HEATHER EWART: But that calling card was no match for security warnings about Huawei from ASIO, Australia's top intelligence body, to the cabinet security subcommittee last year. One of the first tasks of the new Attorney-General Nicola Roxon when she was sworn in before Christmas was to act on the subcommittee's decision. 7.30 understands advice from the US Government and intelligence agencies was also a key factor.

AVI JORISCH, FORMER US TREASURY DEPT. OFFICIAL: We see you as one of our closest allies and so it certainly stands to reason that our intelligence agencies and our most senior officials have been engaging with yours for quite some time, especially on issues such as this.

HEATHER EWART: Now questions are being asked in diplomatic and trade circles about Washington's motives.

HUGH WHITE: It is true that the United States is getting worried about how close Australia is getting to China. It wouldn't be to me very surprising if that anxiety had been reflected by the - in the United States, perhaps encouraging Australia not to allow China to bid into this very important national project.

HEATHER EWART: Is this something that might've come up in conversations during President Obama's visit here last year?

HUGH WHITE: I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is one of the things that might not have been on President Obama's or his party's talking points when they came.

HEATHER EWART: Whatever happened, it was after President Obama's visit that Huawei officials and consultants on its payroll noted a marked shift in what they felt had been positive relations with the NBN Co and the Government. Some were hauled before ASIO and related departments and told to get a message to China that Australia would not tolerate increased cyber ****ing of ministerial offices and departments, which has been going on for years.

HUGH WHITE: As China grows, as it becomes richer, it becomes more technically capable and of course as it more strategically ambitious, it's gonna be doing more of this kind of thing. I don't think we should be surprised by that. That's not to say we shouldn't try and guard against it, but we shouldn't fall down in a dead faint that they're doing what we've always done.

HEATHER EWART: Huawei stood accused of giving the Chinese Government a helping hand or at least being vulnerable to pressure.

ALASTAIR MACGIBBON: Huawei itself as a company I'm sure isn't actively involved in passing information. But would the Chinese Government ask Huawei how to break its technologies? Would the Chinese Government ask its engineers that live in China to come over to the security headquarters and talk about how to break its technology? I suspect that would be the case. In fact I would be really surprised if that wasn't common practice.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: This is it complete nonsense. First of all, for Huawei, it derives over 60 per cent of all of its revenue from outside of China So if it was seen to be a vehicle for cyber warfare, well then of course it would lose all of that business, it would lose it overnight and it would destroy the company, so the company can't afford to be involved in those sorts of activities.

JEREMY MITCHELL: Can I say in all the countries that we operate in, 140 of them, there's only one country that we continually get raised a security question and that is the United States.

HEATHER EWART: Huawei has been frozen out of contracts in the US amid concerns that its chief executive was a member of the People's Liberation Army and that until recently the company was doing big business with Iran.

AVI JORISCH: Huawei up until very late 2011 had a massive operation in Iran and was reported to have helped the Iranian regime track and geospatially locate Iranians during the demonstrations of 2009, which as we all know, the Iranian regime eventually killed many of the opponents.

JEREMY MITCHELL: That is totally false and we deny that totally. We are in Iran. We don't hide that, as is many of our competitors. But we're offering is non-military services.

HEATHER EWART: As Huawei insists it's a private company, the message is having no impacts on the US or Australian governments. Through all of this, you can be sure the Chinese Government is watching closely, especially for any signals coming from the new Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr.

HUGH WHITE: Now, there's nothing wrong with irritating Beijing, but we shouldn't expect to be able to do it scot-free. That will contribute to the sense in China that Australia is increasingly trying to distance itself from China on a whole range of security and strategic issues.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: This is about understanding the new China, the new world, the new relationships which are opening up.

JEREMY MITCHELL: The Government is sticking to its guns. In a statement to 7.30 late last week, the Attorney-General said the Government had a responsibility to protect the NBN's integrity. This was consistent with the Government's practice for ensuring the security and resilience of Australia's critical infrastructure more broadly.

But Huawei is ploughing on. After all, there's always the chance of a change of government. Last year it sponsored trips to its China operations for Liberal frontbenchers like Julie Bishop and Andrew Robb. Labor ministers have declined the offer. The Government now braces for the prospect of retaliation from China for putting security concerns before diplomacy and trade.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Political editor Heather Ewart.

nedshannon
2012-03-30, 05:36 PM
HI! every body! nice to meet you.