Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Huawei launches media campaign amid UK ban fears

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats Economic Security

Comments: 0

Huawei is launching an unprecedented media campaign in the United Kingdom amid a new security review.

The Chinese high-tech group has come under increased scrutiny and could now be frozen out from the UK’s 5G rollout.

In an open letter to the public published on its website on Monday, it pointed out its close ties to the country.

“For nearly 20 years, we’ve supplied the UK’s mobile and broadband companies with 3G and 4G. But some now question our role in helping Britain lead the way in 5G.”

To ram home the message, Huawei Vice-President Victor Zhang made it clear that the privately-owned company could be trusted.

“Huawei grew up in the UK … building the 3G and 4G networks we all use every day. [This] letter underlines Huawei’s ongoing commitment to improving connectivity for everyone in the UK,” he said on Huawei’s website.

Still, fears exist about the telecom giant’s close links to Beijing. The United States has expressed strong concerns that China could use Huawei’s networking systems for espionage or cyber-sabotage.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has even lobbied other countries to shun the group in their proposed 5G infrastructure after banning it at home.

‘Heavy regulation’

“There are concerns that Huawei’s 5G infrastructure could contain backdoors giving the Chinese government access to its inner workings and allowing Beijing to attack communications networks and public utilities,” Lindsay Maizland and Andrew Chatzky, of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a commentary.

“The government has considerable sway over all Chinese private companies through heavy regulation, including the requirement that they establish Chinese Communist Party branches within them, and state-backed investment. Under President Xi Jinping, the lines between the public and the private have become even more blurred,” they said.

For the UK, the situation has become more complicated in the past few months as relations between London and Beijing rapidly deteriorate.

Friction surfaced over China’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, plans to bring in a new national security law in Hong Kong and the ongoing Huawei saga after originally giving the company the green light.

At the weekend, China’s Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming was reported in The Sunday Times as telling business leaders that Beijing viewed the stand-off as “a litmus test of whether Britain is a true and faithful partner.”

His comments came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to work with the UK’s “Five Eyes” intelligence allies, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to find an alternative to Huawei.

Media reports also claimed that Johnson’s government had reached out to South Korea’s Samsung and Japan’s NEC to replace the Chinese company. But that has yet to be confirmed.

In another political twist, GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming played down the risks posed by a limited 5G rollout by Huawei to the “Five Eyes alliance.”

“Five Eyes isn’t an organization, it’s a partnership, it’s an alliance. It is, of course, the case that whilst we share basic principles … there are areas where, from time to time, our approaches differ,” he said.

“Those are not fundamentally undermining the alliance. Indeed, I think it’s the power of the alliance that, where we do differ, we can both understand why we’re taking those decisions, but also make sure that we continue to cooperate across the broader piece,” Fleming, the head of of the GCHQ spy agency, added in an interview recorded last month for a science festival in England.

Yet if Huawei is banned, there could be serious repercussions.

On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph in London reported that HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker had warned that the British-based bank could face reprisals, citing industry and political sources. HSBC has yet to comment on the article.

In the meantime, Huawei will continue its charm offensive. And like its global networks, that will probably run and run. 

Photo: China's telecom giant Huawei has launched a 5G charm offensive in the United Kingdom. Photo: AFP / Nicolas Asfouri

Link: https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/huawei-launches-media-campaign-amid-uk-ban-fears/

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