The federal government’s cyber spies advised Australia would have had to put 300 separate security measures on Huawei’s equipment to make it safe for the nation’s 5G system but the network could still have been shut down on Beijing’s orders. The Australian Signals Directorate spent more than eight months trying to find a way to make the Chinese company’s telecommunications equipment acceptably safe but ultimately told the Turnbull government the risk could not be contained satisfactorily.
Australia was the first country to ban Huawei from its 5G system in 2018, a decision many more have followed. The government of Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to demand that Canberra reverse the veto. It is number two on a list of 14 demands released by the Chinese embassy in Canberra in November as a prerequisite to improving relations. Number one on the list calls for China’s foreign investment to be unrestricted....MORE
