China: 5G and the security threat in Latin America

The People’s Republic of China continues its infiltration strategy in Latin America on several fronts.

Among other things, deploying its 5G mobile technology will attempt to influence all sectors of society.

“It’s a double tool that serves to facilitate communication, but at the same time, China uses it as an intelligence apparatus,” explained Luis Somoza, professor of security and defense at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“To accept this type of technology in Latin American countries is to put yourself under the thumb of the Chinese People’s Party.”

According to the recently released China Index 2022 by Doublethink Lab, an NGO dedicated to studying malign Chinese influence worldwide, China has gradually expanded its influence in Latin American countries.

China is seeking not only to create dependencies, such as in the economic sector, or to control media coverage (by promoting trust in its state media, for example) but also to promote digital transformation with 5G hardware and technology developed by Huawei, ZTE, or other Chinese companies.

Huawei and other Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies act as an extension of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and have been linked to Chinese intelligence and military, CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) reported.

In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE, as a threat to national security.

In May 2022, Canada banned Huawei technologies from 5G networks, a move that followed bans or restrictions in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand over fears of cyber espionage.

“Allowing Huawei, and by extension the CCP, to develop Latin American 5G infrastructure would subject the region to a regime that has a proven track record of exploiting its relationships at gunpoint,” wrote Ana Rosa Quintana, senior policy analyst for Latin America and the Western Hemisphere at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

MALIGNANT TECHNOLOGY

In a 2021 report, TOP10VPN, an independent website that advocates for internet privacy, security, and freedom, studied Huawei devices in 72 countries and found that 18 of those countries use the technology as a form of censorship.

Cuba, for example, was found to be using the technology to block websites and independent news media.

In late September 2021, Lithuania’s Ministry of Defense urged the public to throw away Chinese 5G cell phones after the National Center for Cybersecurity found they had built-in censorship tools and security vulnerabilities (BBC reported).

“If Huawei succeeds in imposing and developing 5G networks in Latin America, the company would essentially control the communications, infrastructure and sensitive technology of the region’s governments, citizens and businesses,” Quintana wrote.

“The increased transmission speed would strengthen the CCP’s spying capabilities, leaving citizens vulnerable to authoritarian governments and industry vulnerable to stolen trade secrets.”

In Latin America, some countries, such as Argentina, are trying to take decisive steps to roll out the 5G network in their country.

After Argentina’s communications and media regulator, the Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones, made progress in approving spectrum bands to deploy fifth-generation systems, the agency plans to put the spectrum out to tender between March and April.

“The idea is to start the bidding, and the project would consist of dividing the country into several areas so that no company would keep all the areas, but the most interesting area is Greater Buenos Aires, where 50% of the population lives and where Huawei has important agreements with Argentine companies,” said Fabián Calle, a political analyst and professor of international relations at the University Austral in Buenos Aires.

Tiempo Argentino reported that Huawei is one of the leading players in both Chile and Brazil.

In Chile, the network rollout is more extensive, and the service is already being offered commercially, so there are already 2 million 5G mobile users.

In Brazil, more than US$1 billion was offered in the November 2021 bids.

Still, most of the commitments made by the private companies participating in the negotiations were for network deployment investments made in 2022.

“These Chinese investments in Latin America put the region in great fragility and instability in a conflict-ridden world,” Somoza concluded.

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