Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand is not discriminating against Huawei

Friday, 25 January 2019

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the New Zealand government is not discriminating against Huawei, despite a decision to block Spark from using equipment produced by the Chinese manufacturer for its upcoming 5G network.

Concerns had been raised by some intelligence agencies that Huawei was too closely connected to the Chinese government.

'This is not about a particular vendor,' Ardern said, in an interview at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland. 'This is about a framework in New Zealand that I think serves us well.'

No Chinese company is entirely independent of its government, and legally the government can call upon citizens and organisations to assist with intelligence work if required.

* China's tech company and why it's been banned by our spies

Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand is not discriminating against Huawei.

* NZ's big call on Huawei - politics best explains 5G 'ban'**

There is no evidence that Huawei has engaged in any espionage activities, but some close associations, including founder Ren Zhengfei, a former technologist in the People's Liberation Army, have made US, European, and allied intelligence agencies uneasy.

In February 2018, six US intelligence agency heads told the US Senate that they did not trust Huawei or fellow Chinese tech company ZTE, and recommended against using their products.

Andrew Little insists the decision to ban the tech giant Hauwei from Spark's 5G rollout isn't because the company is Chinese.

In August, the US passed a law prohibiting federal agencies from purchasing or using equipment manufactured by Huawei or ZTE, as well as other Chinese companies.

Australia soon followed with a similar ban on any company which is likely to be under the direction of a foreign country from being involved in building its 5G networks.

In November 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported the US government was urging allies not to use Huawei, amid fears of Chinese meddling in 5G networks.

The same month, Government Communications Security Bureau Director-General Andrew Hampton informed Spark it could not use Huawei equipment for it's upcoming 5G network upgrade, citing 'significant national security risks'.

Spark used Huawei equipment to upgrade its 3G and 4G network. The company also supplied and partially financed 2degrees' mobile network.

The GCSB has left it open for Spark to 'prevent of mitigate' the risk - though the specific concerns have not been publicly disclosed.

It is not clear what Spark's next move will be, but Huawei say they intend to put forward a new proposal in the next two months, and still hope to achieve a 5G rollout in 2020.