Australian PM defends decision to ban China’s Huawei

PanARMENIAN.Net - Australia has not harmed its relationship with Beijing by banning Chinese technology giant Huawei from helping to build a nationwide high-speed Internet network due to concern about cyber attacks traced to China, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Thursday, March 29, according to The Associated Press.

The government late last year told Huawei Technologies Ltd. it was barred from bidding for work on the 36 billion Australian dollar ($38 billion) network, The Australian Financial Review newspaper reported this week.

The newspaper said that decision was prompted by Australian intelligence officials who cited hacking attacks traced to China. The company is one of the world's biggest producers of switching equipment that forms the heart of phone and data networks.

In her first press conference in Australia since she returned from a nuclear summit in South Korea, Gillard said she would not comment in detail on "what ultimately are national security matters."

She said her government's decision was correct and had not broken any international trade rules or agreements with China, Australia's largest trading partner with whom a free trade agreement is under negotiation.

"It is a decision open to the Australian government," Gillard told reporters. "We've taken it for the right reasons through the right process based on the right advice about a piece of critical infrastructure for our nation's future."

She acknowledged that Beijing disagreed with that decision.

Huawei, which unlike many big Chinese companies is not state owned, has rejected suggestions it might be a security risk and said it has won the trust of global telecommunications companies.

The company expressed disappointment with Australia's decision. It has operated in Australia since 2004 and said it already works with the country's major telecoms companies.

Gillard announced Thursday that construction of the fiber-optic cable section of the network will be under way or completed in areas containing 3.5 million homes and businesses in 1,500 towns and suburbs across Australia over the next three years.