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Beijing, Steamrollering 5G Opposition to Huawei

"Now I would even say this is not only disappointing -- this is disheartening. [Britain had] simply dumped this company [Huawei]."
"The way you are treating Huawei is being followed very closely by other Chinese businesses, and it will be very difficult for other businesses to have the confidence to have more investment."
Chinese Ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming

"Does the U.K. want to maintain its independent status or be reduced to being a vassal of the United States, be the U.S.'s cats paw?"
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying

"We see ourselves as being caught in the middle of the U.S.-China trade war. Canada is also unfortunately caught in the middle of it."
"That is the context in which a lot of announcements and decisions are made, as the Trump administration is demanding that everyone pick a side whether it is actually in their interest to go all in on one side or that other."
Alykhan Velshi, vice-president of corporate affairs, Huawei Canada

Of the Five Eyes intelligence collaborative group, only Britain and Canada hadn't yet made the final decision whether or not to include China's telecommunications giant Huawei in their 5G upgrade networks. Finally, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson took that critical step, ordering that Huawei equipment be purged from Britain's emerging 5G network by 2027. In response China has warned that this decision banning Huawei will have negative consequences for Britain; not the first time the warning was issued, pre-decision.

Canada now is the sole remaining Five Eyes member still prevaricating, after the United States, New Zealand, Australia and now Britain have made it clear their distrust of China's motivations, potential and penchant for indulging in cyber espionage would be given the clear opportunity to spy on those with whom its Huawei networking corporation inclusion would afford it, linked to Five Eyes' telecommunications upgrades. Canada has little option but to join the other four, or risk being disinvited to be part of the group.

China's threats notwithstanding, to both Britain and Canada, and its snarling contempt for New Zealand and Australia, alongside its competitive trade war with the United States, all five agree that their trade dependence on China should be lifted, not deepened. This was a lesson brought home to all countries across the globe in the wake of the global pandemic, desperately seeking to source personal protective equipment and respirators from the country producing the majority of both, just incidentally exporting COVID-19 globally.

China's contemptible kidnapping of two Canadian citizens and holding them as prisoners claiming them to be espionage security risks to China in a bald reaction to an extradition treaty between the U.S. and Canada resulting in the arrest of Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou, in exchange for Michael Kovrig and Spavor, alongside hardball trade tactics exercised by Beijing in an effort to force Meng's release is reason aplenty for the Canadian government to deny Huawei access to Canada's 5G upgrade.

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For the U.K., China with its immense economic base, global investment outreach and influence-peddling, presents as a formidable antagonist that will not hesitate to flex its trade and investment muscle to the detriment of England, with one-fifth of China's economy. China's trademark persuasion tactics rely on bullying and belittling those it views as antagonistic to its clumsy efforts at prestige and importance in world affairs. China has bought allies and their support throughout Asia, Africa the Middle East and Europe, through investment and loan sharking for infrastructure projects in its One Road One Belt enterprise.

That road appears to halt at the gates of Western democracies. The hesitant Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, fearful of further fallout from a trade giant it originally viewed as an opportunity for a remunerative free trade agreement, convinced that through diplomacy China's human rights record could be gently prodded toward reform was never anything but a transparent move to make it appear that Canada cared about China's abuses, all the while prepared to do business with the economic colossus.

Goods imported from China across the globe have given it a sense of security that building exponentially on increasing trade imbalances and securing greater obligations from emerging economies reliant on China's largess, would allow it to continue steaming forward toward its goal of achieving great power status second to none. If, on the way to achieving that coveted status, China stumbles across a few impediments, it is prepared to shove them out of the way and steam on, confident that those opposing it will be the losers, and its conquest will be assured.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the G20 Summit in 2016. His government has stalled a decision on whether to ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks. Photo: Reuters