Huawei - how much of a risk?

I’ve just read that “BT has has long made use of Huawei's equipment within its fixed-line network, having signed a pioneering contract with the supplier in 2005”
It has, however, been phasing out Huawei parts since it bought the mobile network EE.
I don’t quite understand the reasoning or link between these two statements and have jet to read anything about it.

Nothing to do with the politics or security (or lack of) here, but every time I see the name of the Company I can’t help but be transported back in time to the days when we had a little WiFi device made by them on our boat. We had no idea back then as to how to pronounce the name, so we ended up calling it ‘The Who Are We’

Human rights is irrelevant in considering this issue. China is a totalitarian state. There is nothing of any strategic importance in that country that exists other than at the consent and will of the government and to think that Huawei is not a direct part of this process is to be deeply naive.

Imagine GCHQ operating through Vodaphone and you have an idea how a UK equivalent would look.

We are the only country so far to think it safe to work with them on 5G and as I write the 10.00pm news on R4 is reporting on how Huawei is involved in enabling the Chineses government to monitor the activities of its population.

Paul2706
Do try putting some punctuation in your comments. It's not a text message.

Personally I wouldn't touch China with a barge pole. No respect for human rights, copyright, international treaties - look at the unrest in Hong Kong, look at how it has treated Africa and Tibet, the Uighur Muslims. Universities have reported attempts at hacking from China. Islands being created in the South China sea. I cannot understand why Mrs May is flying in the face of warnings from the security services to use Chinese technology. I would not give them house room.

All this talk of spying this has gone on probably unnoticed or unreported for decades should we worry about the Chinese according to economists the Chinese bubble has burst and their economy is suffering decline so they probably need this deal just as much as we do also GCHQ maybe snooping on the Chinese unbeknown to us.

By leaving the EU we will make ourselves dependent on any trade deals that nations like China or the USA deign to throw our way. Interesting the Huawei got the go ahead at the same time as a trade deal with China is being negotiated. Don't let us fool ourselves that they're not related. And, yes, I think it's a big risk.

5G! I’d just like to get a reliable 3G personally. Many times even in Cities let alone in the countryside, the phone WiFi just suddenly drops out and the little thingy (technical term lol) goes round and round in circles. How about the Government concentrate on getting good WiFi coverage countrywide before leaping at 5G off some dodgy salesmen?

nanatoone interesting and informative post - thank you

Good posts pinkquartz...my thoughts entirely.

Pinkquartz
The 'app' sounds like something our government would be interested in
I remember seeing it in action when they showed what was happening with the Uighur people.

Please google DANGER OF G5.

Trisher I am NOT fooling myself. China is and always has been a state controlled place. The USA has faults but it is not state controlled.
If our Govt sells us out to China you will regret being so naive!
We could not even have this debate in China.
USA is far from perfect and so are we. But we are the most liberal culture on the planet so far. Flawed yes but not a country devoid of Human Rights.
China began its journey into prosperity by forcing prisoners to make goods in factories and paid them NOTHING! that is how they got started. and we have bought into their cheap and often toxic goods to the detriment of our economy.

When a country develops Apps to spy on it's own people what will be next?

maxdecatt 10.18
Reported

pinkquartz if you think the US and the CIA with their policies of rendition, imprisonment and interference in many issues when it suits, aren't just as scarey as the regime in China which may be abslutely abhorrent but which hasn't had the time to develop the same systems and networks you are fooling yourself. Both of them have vested interests at heart and certainly one is absolutely autocratic with its own citizens but the other has been interfering in other countries for years and has developed its abilities.

I found this news report in todays Guardian:

"Besides the pervasive surveillance, human rights groups estimate about one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are being held in political re-education camps, where they are taught communist propaganda and forced to renounce their religion. China calls the camps voluntary “training centres” and has likened them to boarding schools, but survivors speak of brainwashing, torture and abuse inside the facilities".

and "The app targets 36 “person types” to whom officials must pay special attention. The categories include seemingly harmless behaviours such as “does not socialise with neighbours, seldom uses front door”; “suddenly returned to hometown after being away for a long time”; “collected money or materials for mosques with enthusiasm”; and “household uses an abnormal amount of electricity.”

Doesn't sound like a country we should be doing deals on 5G with. Once they have an in we won't be able to block them.

If anyone like Trisher thinks that there is little difference between China and the USA then remember China and lack of human rights. However messed up you might think the West is China has total state control and a very censored internet where I probably would not even be able to say this.
I think being spied on by China is far worse and so will all the other countries who will stop sharing intel with us.

I think it is clear that in China the State is in charge of even the private companies.
I thought this was unbelievably stupid of our Govt. and I was glad that it was leaked.
This has to be stopped.
No other country will trust us again.

It is an allegation, not an establishment fact, that Huawei is part owned by the Chinese government. It is hotly denied by Huawei. This is described by the not necessarily independent NY Times www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/technology/who-owns-huawei.html

Having worked in IT for many years I don’t have much sympathy for US companies and their so called IPR. Big US companies have repeatedly abused IPR by using it to bully and steal from small developers. People who actually invent stuff rarely benefit substantially. Government procurement should put pressure on suppliers to open source far more material.

Unfortunately Annaraml most “independent” candidates are just closet Tories who don’t even have explicit policies.

I think many people commenting don’t really understand our mobile core networks and understandably so. I’ve worked in this area and have three comments. Huawei are well known for stealing the IPR of phone companies and infrastructure manufactures and designers (Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and the like) all backed by Chinese money, it is part owned by the Chinese Government, hence being able to manufacture more cheaply. Secondly, the security issues are well known in the industry and are relevant. They have been putting relays into networks for a long time, allowing them to infiltrate our calls, thirdly, the mobile phones business is not in dispute here and Apple do not make the networks we are talking about. Most of the suppliers are from Europe or China or S Korea or Japan. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could thrown them, nor would anyone else in the industry. Theresa May has totally lost it, she has been influenced by former cabinet ministers, now executive directors of Huawei and put them before the interests of this country. Shame on her.

Agree with Geoft. We seem to be willing to let the Chinese run a nuclear power station, which could be turned into a crude bomb. Why should we worry more about the Chinese spying on non critical parts of our networks than the Americans doing the same thing, and making a profit. If Huawei can provide good equipment at an attractive price, let’s go for it.

Well, today is voting day and if you disagree with the Government you have a chance to show your disapproval even though these are only the Council elections.
A massive drop in the number of Tory seats will make them look at their policies and decisions more closely afterwards.
As I am not too keen on Jeremy either I will be voting for an independent candidate.

The US is largely protecting their native suppliers like Cisco by keeping Huawei out - this is driven more by commercial rather than security concerns. We barely have any such home-grown tech suppliers in this regard, but we need to balance our 'special relationship' with the US especially post Brexit (there I said the B word) and the need to keep the Chinese (market) on our side. Agree that we need to be mindful when relying on outside suppliers, but weren't we just about to sign a deal with China to supply a nuclear power station? In short I reckon that Climate change is higher up the risk register than who supplies our 5G infrastructure.