Hi-tech security

Dangers of allowing Huawei to conduct 5G trials in India are real

Telecommunications giant Huawei has long been associated with the military-industrial complex of the People’s Republic of China — it was founded, after all, by a former engineer in the People’s Liberation Army and continues to have close links to the Beijing establishment. Thus the fact that it has found itself in the eye of the trade war storm is not surprising. The recent arrest in Canada of the chief financial officer of Huawei — who also happens to be the daughter of the company’s founder — has created a fresh flashpoint between the United States and China. It reveals that fresh attention is being paid to the mechanisms of, as well as the implications of, Chinese technological leadership. It comes also at a time when many of the “five eyes” countries that have the closest intelligence and security partnerships with the US have imposed restrictions on Huawei and its compatriots in the same industry, such as ZTE. The Government of Japan has also moved to prevent these companies from dominating the fifth-generation telecom rollout domestically. The question is what India’s response will be.

When it comes to the management of technology transfer — a major disagreement between Beijing and the West — India is unfortunate not to have a large enough player, or even a potential player, to make a difference to the conversation. However, this is not the case when it comes to the consumption and use of new technology. For example, who will be permitted to conduct 5G trials in India is an ongoing conversation. It is important for the government to ensure that there is transparency about national security as well as the commercial interests at stake in this and similar cases. The dangers of permitting state-linked companies such as Huawei to become the primary guarantors of the effectiveness of India’s telecom backbone are real, and should be avoided.

More generally, India’s protections against breaches in the high-tech, telecom and cyber domain need urgent review. It is far from clear that there is sufficient capacity or awareness about the degree to which Indian systems can be or have already been penetrated. Have stress tests been run or simulated to determine the stability of India’s technological framework in the event of various geopolitical crises? If there are questions about external dependence that have been raised by these tests, then what measures are being taken to ensure effective security? Technological infrastructure is as crucial in the 21st century as fuel independence or the reliable supply of materiel was in the 20th. It should be an important part of security preparedness and theorising. As a start, the government could consider coming out with a white paper establishing its strategy in this respect, similar to the white paper on data protection that was produced last year. In the absence of such a holistic strategy, worries will only grow that an arbitrary and short-sighted approach is being used as the basis of decisions in this crucial field.