Last week we were a little surprised when Huawei announced a press conference live from their Shenzhen headquarters and proceeded to state, while reading from several Mate X phones, that the company was going to sue the US government.
At the time, we discussed internally what this would mean for Australia, given that our government has banned Huawei from our 5G networks without any evidence that they were willing to share with anyone, Huawei included. At the time, we were unsure whether Huawei would also sue the Aussie government but it seems that the Australian government is safe, for now.
When questioned about this, a Huawei spokesperson said that they had no plans to file legal proceedings against the Australian government:
Although we have differences with the (Australian) federal government, we are still willing to cooperate… At present, the legal challenge is not a priority.
We must say this is an “at present, not yet” statement and does not mean that they will not proceed down that path in the future. It may also be more difficult with Australian law given our less than thorough constitution that doesn’t specify so many rights and restrictions as does US law.
In the meantime all eyes will be on the courts in Texas, where Huawei is suing the US government. A win for Huawei may be short lived; there’s no guarantee that a declaration that this particular legislation is unconstitutional would stop the US from taking a different approach.
Curiously, the approach in the US was criticised for legislative overreach; the approach taken in Australia addresses this by setting up the framework and allowing the executive to make particular findings and decisions. Had the US taken this approach, we’d probably have a very different situation on our hands.
One thing is for sure, Australia seems to be taking the US lead here. A change of approach in the US could see a change of heart locally too, especially when the UK government has advice that the security risk posed there by Chinese firms – including Huawei – is eminently manageable.
This is far from finished in both countries — watch this space.
We all know Huawei is run by the Chinese government. The last thing we would want to do is put their hardware in our communications systems. Any conflict they could just switch s off.
Its ironic that the Chinese use a free and democratic country to sue yet if it was tried in reverse it wouldn’t even get off the ground.
Clearly, the Chinese government is waiting to see what happens in the USA courts before proceeding with lawsuits elsewhere.
I don’t think we “know” that. The US govt suspects that but at this stage there is no proof that has been made public. I suspect it depends on what newspaper you read.
It appears as though the US government may have been lying for the countries own fiscal and political benefit, considering the decisions made by other foreign powers who don’t follow the USA’s every word. It’s safe to assume this would have a detrimental effect on our already frosty relationship. But at the same time China are partly to blame for the negative perceptions we have of them.