Three days after Australian media ran a story exposing the security risks associated with a 5G Communication and smartphones, built by Chinese Company Huawei, global chief executive Ken Hu has come out swinging at Mobile World Congress claiming that US and Australian concerns are based on “groundless suspicions” and are unfair to the company.
New Huawei notebook , shown at MWC
Mr Hu was responding to a story that The Australian Financial Review reported along with ChannelNews that the US had warned the Australian government to exclude Huawei from the imminent deployment of the new super-fast 5G mobile network due to security concerns.
Ironically the comments were made to Jennifer Hewett a Fairfax journalist who attended the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with all expenses including business class airfare and accommodation paid for by Huawei.
As a result of the weekend exposure the Australian government has now ordered a full national security assessment of Huawei’s involvement from the newly established critical infrastructure centre in the Department of Home Affairs.
Hu claimed that Huawei was “very sorry” the words and concerns expressed were not based on solid facts, insisting that the company remained “positive and open” on the issue.
This is not the first time that the Chinese Company has found themselves in trouble with the Australian Government. When the National Broadband Network was originally tendered Huawei was abruptly banned from any involvement in the project by the Abbott government.
This also came after security warnings from the US and was deeply embarrassing to the Chinese company who is also struggling to establish their consumer products in Australia with several organisations such as Telstra refusing to range their handsets.
Huawei’s Australia’s consumer division has witnessed high staff churn during the past two years with their mobile products seen as poor sellers alongside products from brands such as Apple Samsung and fellow Chinese brand Alcatel who is the #3 volume smartphone brand in Australia.
Huawei considers Australia, along with the US and Taiwan, as one of only three countries that are “hostile” to the company.
