Visiting London on Friday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper made clear why the United States expects Britain to ban Chinese telecommunications firm, Huawei, from its networks.
“Our view is that Huawei is the means by which China would get into our networks and our systems,” Esper continued, “and either attempt to extract information, or to corrupt it, or to undermine what we’re trying to do. So our message has been, and it’s the message I carried to NATO in June, was that we need to be alert to this and not buy into the attractiveness of Huawei technology that is subsidized by the Chinese government and is being offered out there. Because at some point depending on how they leverage that technology it may constrain our ability to share intelligence, share technology, share plans, etc.”
Esper, who has had no qualms about identifying the China challenge, is absolutely correct. While Britain is America’s closest ally and most capable military and intelligence partner, China poses an existential threat to the American-led democratic international order of which Britain is a key part. In both design and operation, Huawei is an intelligence agency of the Chinese state. Operating undercover as a consumer service provider, it exists to provide back doors into western telecommunications networks — back doors to steal information and undercut western security. Don’t take my word for it, take that of British intelligence, which has explained precisely how Huawei’s backdoors operate.
Huawei’s threat can meet no equivocation or half-measure, it requires resistance in every area. But while the Trump administration is rightly pressuring most of its allies, one close ally is being given a free hand with Huawei. Cultivating close technology relationships with China, Israel has escaped U.S. warnings of the kind that Esper delivered to Britain on Friday, and which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented in London back in May.
That must change. The U.S.-China struggle will determine the future freedom and prosperity of the world. The least America can ask of its allies is that they not support the enemy.
