Huawei, the Chinese telecomms company that is under sustained attack by the US administration, has decided to counter attack – and it seems that they have found some pretty good ground to do it on.
MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona is the largest mobile technology event in the world. At the current conference, Huawei Chairman, Guo Peng, used his speech to point out that although the US representatives have made much of Chinese laws that compel Chinese companies to aid the Chinese state, American laws are just as bad. They compel US companies to share their data with the US government whenever the US government demands it – even if the servers are located in another country.
Indeed. In fact the vulnerabilities in using US companies may go even further than that. If one searches the internet for information about Cisco Systems, (an American company), it is not hard to find stories of “back doors” and other devices in the software that allow American agencies to spy on users. But the Chinese can hardly celebrate. This is something that they have also been guilty of.
So who do you trust?.
Europe is caught in the middle of this cyber fight. Of course it is slightly preferable to be spied on by your allies than by your enemies – but not by much. This is an age when vital commercial information equals power and no-one can really be trusted not to use a commercial advantage however they get it. But there isn’t a lot to choose from in the telecomms market. If European companies really want to feel that their precious data is safe then perhaps Scandinavian companies such as Ericsson might be the favoured option?