R Street Institute

Policy Studies Cybersecurity

Huawei and National Security: Lessons for 5G

by Kathryn Waldron
Sept 21, 2020
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Key Points

The actions of the Chinese Communist Party prove that it is impossible to be truly neutral about a company’s country of origin.
Alliances are crucial to mitigating risk within global systems, but we should not assume other actors, even traditional allies, will automatically follow U.S. global leadership.
Excluding risky vendors, such as Huawei, is not enough to protect network security.

The presence of Huawei equipment in the global 5G supply chain presents a potential threat to American national security as, without legitimate checks on the power of the Chinese Communist Party, there is no way to truly ascertain the independence of Chinese companies from the Chinese government. Thus far, the United States and some of its allies have attempted either full or partial bans to mitigate the risk associated with the presence of Huawei equipment. However, while both of these strategies may work in different ways in the short term, they are unlikely to effectively mitigate the cybersecurity risk associated with Huawei’s 5G equipment in the long run.

Press release: Reconsidering approaches to Huawei, China and National Security

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