China syndromeHuawei espionage arrests in Poland: A wake-up call to Europe
U.S. and European intelligence services have been warning that Huawei, a jewel in the crown of the China’s growing technology industry, cannot be trusted in its protestations that it does not cooperate with the country’s intelligence agencies, or that it respects the rule of law and the intellectual property of its competitors. European governments should exclude Huawei from their telecommunications infrastructure before the company becomes too enmeshed in the continent’s 5G systems to be fully, securely, and painlessly removed at a later date. Failure to do so would give China truly unprecedented tools to corrupt, influence, and subvert Western democracies and the rule of law that is so vital to their continued health and the health of the post-War international system.
Huawei, one of the world’s largest and most powerful telecommunications conglomerates, has had a difficult two months, facing a new wave of arrests and enforcement actions in countries in Europe and North America. In January, the Polish authorities arrested Piotr Durbajlo and Weijing “Stanislaw” Wang on charges of espionage on behalf of China. Wang, a Chinese national, was a sales director at Huawei (he has since been fired by the company), while Durbajlo is a former member of the Polish domestic counterintelligence agency and a former telecommunications advisor to Prime Minister Beata Szydlo. Durbajlo was well integrated into the senior levels of the Polish government, and even designed the special smartphones used by senior officials.
Such developments have added to suspicions that Huawei, a jewel in the crown of the China’s growing technology industry cannot be trusted in its protestations that it does not cooperate with the country’s intelligence agencies, or that it respects the rule of law and the intellectual property of its competitors.
Huawei’s trustworthiness in these respects matters. If it is lying about cooperation with Chinese intelligence, its capabilities could endanger the data security and privacy rights of Western democratic countries, potentially giving China the tools to corrupt politicians and to improperly influence Western policymaking in the West at the highest levels. If in its actions it habitually undermines rule of law and intellectual property, it could erode the foundations of honesty and transparency that free, fair markets depend on. If the company wants to continue growing its market share in Western countries, their leaders must be able to trust its assurances. The balance of evidence, including the events of the past two months, indicate that they probably cannot.
