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Chinese telecoms firms in America

By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: October 11, 2012

Oct 8th 2012, 23:22 by M.G. | SAN FRANCISCO

“LITTLE more than an exercise in China bashing.” That is how a spokesman for Huawei has described a report published on October 8th by the Intelligence Committee of America’s House of Representatives, which has spent the past year looking into the activities of two of China’s biggest telecoms firms. The report contains plenty of rhetoric about the supposed threats that Huawei and ZTE, the other Chinese company covered in it, pose to American security because of their opaque governance structures and links to China’s Communist Party. But it is oddly devoid of hard evidence to support its draconian recommendations.

Among other things, the committee’s report calls for any attempt by Huawei or ZTE to buy American companies to be blocked by a government body that is responsible for reviewing foreign purchases of American assets. It also says that the two firms’ telecoms-networking equipment and components should be excluded from government systems and those of private firms that work on them. And it wants to see an in-depth investigation into the financial support that the companies receive from the Chinese government.

If some of these recommendations are implemented, they could effectively stymie the Chinese firms’ attempts to expand in the world’s largest telecoms market and give a boost to rivals such as America’s Cisco and Sweden’s Ericsson. That explains why Huawei has been quick to hit back at the committee’s conclusions, arguing that it should not be “held hostage to geopolitical tensions” between governments.

The report itself fails to spell out any specific examples of the security risks that Huawei and ZTE pose, though it contains a “classified” section that supposedly contains instances in which Huawei’s employees “may be violating US laws”. At a press conference to launch the report, dark hints were dropped that the firm had been involved in things such as “beaconing”, or the illicit extraction and transfer of data, presumably with the goal of sending it on to China—a charge that Huawei firmly denies. The Chinese firm also gave warning that shutting it out of the American market would create a “monstrous, trade-distorting precedent”.

Indeed it would. As this newspaper has argued, knee-jerk techno-nationalism also makes no sense in an industry in which supply chains have become global. Most telecoms-equipment manufacturers now manufacture part or all of their kit in China and source components from the country. So what is needed most is an international effort to develop standards governing the integrity and security of telecoms networks. Sadly, the House Intelligence Committee isn’t smart enough to see this.

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打壓中國？報告：電信公司威脅美國國安

2012-10-11 Web only 作者：經濟學人

美國眾議院情資委員會花了一年的時間，調查兩間中國最大的電信公司，並於10月8日公佈了報告；而華為的發言人表示，這份報告基本上就是在打壓中國。該份報告指出，由於華為和ZTE的管理結構並不透明，又與中國共產黨有連結，因此這兩間中國電信公司應該都會對美國造成威脅。不過，報告中亦缺乏明確證據。

情資委員會在報告中建議，一旦華為或ZTE試圖收購美國企業，負責審核的政府機關都應該阻擋交易；此外，政府系統以及為政府提供服務的私人公司，也不該使用這兩間公司的電信網路設備和零件。報告亦希望，相關單位能深入調查這兩間公司從中國政府獲得的財務協助。

華為和ZTE試圖跨足全球最大的電信市場，如果美國政府真的採行了部分前述建議，兩間中國公司的擴張計畫將陷入困境，Cisco和Ericsson等競爭對手也會得利。這就是為什麼華為立刻反擊，強調華為不該受到地理政治緊繃的牽連。

在華為和ZTE可能帶來的國安風險方面，報告本身並未提出明確例證，但報告亦有一段「機密」章節，其內容應該就有華為員工可能違反了美國法律的實例。

經濟學人曾指出，在一個供給鏈已全球化的產業中，這種膝反射式的科技國家主義並不合理。多數電信設備製造商的產品，現在至少都有部分是在中國生產，許多零件亦來自中國，因此，目前最需要的事情，是各國協力推出標準，監管電信網路的健全和安全；可惜，眾議院情資委員會看不清這一點。（黃維德譯）