U.S. May Review Intelligence Partnership if Brazil Allows Chinese 5G Technology

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – If Brazil includes Chinese technology companies such as Huawei, in its 5G network, the U.S. may reassess the sharing of information it maintains with the country.

This is the warning by Robert Strayer, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy. He has traveled the world to alert governments to the dangers Washington sees in Chinese companies participating in 5G networks.

According to Strayer, these companies are required by Chinese national security law to follow Communist Party determinations, and therefore would not be reliable.

Fifth-generation telephonics – the so-called 5G -, which should start operating in Brazil by 2022, will have speeds up to a hundred times higher than the current networks, thus facilitating the use of self-driving cars and cities with intelligent control. Huawei denies that its equipment poses a security threat.

The U.S. is particularly concerned about the 5G technology because it will be the foundation of all critical infrastructure in the future, including autonomous transportation as well as current infrastructure such as power distribution and water supply.

With 5G, there will be much greater use of software, which increases vulnerability to cyber attacks.

China has a national security law that requires vendors to comply with Communist Party determinations without the oversight of an independent judiciary. The lack of an independent judiciary that can be activated by companies is a critical difference between what exists in democracies such as Brazil and the U.S., and China.

According to Strayer, there also are several other issues in relation to the reliability and shareholder structure of companies. Companies like Huawei and ZTE have a long history of corruption in several countries and of intellectual property theft.

In December of last year, the U.S. and 14 other countries reported that the biggest intellectual property theft in history was committed by China’s national security ministry and private Chinese companies, especially those that provide information technology for infrastructure and cloud computing.

China leads Internet traffic to be diverted back to China on many occasions. With 5G, they will have the legal authority and the opportunity to do things that run counter to the interests of the U.S. and other countries because they will have control over the network providers.