The logo of the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is seen outside its headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
Australia is preparing to ban Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from supplying equipment for its planned 5G broadband network after its intelligence agencies raised concerns that Beijing could force the Chinese telco to hand over sensitive data, two sources said.
Western intelligence agencies have for years raised concerns about Huawei's ties to the Chinese government and the possibility that its equipment could be used for espionage. But there has never been any public evidence to support those suspicions.
American experts on Wednesday warned of the threat posed by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) in the country."I believe that the Gülen movement in the U.S. presents a unique and unusual security threat," said Mark Hall, producer, screenwriter and director of the documentary "Killing Ed", which probed the financial practices of FETO-linked charter schools in the U.S.Security measures stand out at FETÖ’s Pennsylvania campSpeaking at the panel "July 15 Coup attempt: Two Years Later" organized by the Global Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., Hall said FETÖ threatens the U.S. mainly by bringing in unqualified employees from other countries, especially from Turkey, as well as through money laundering and forgery of documents, deceiving local and federal authorities.He noted that the terror group has also been financing major public relations firms for ages to convince American society that they are compatible with democratic, moderate American values. But a closer investigation reveals exactly the opposite."The Gülen movement has financed over a 19-year period a huge PR movement to provide a story about who they are. But when you look more closely, it is not a group that is democratic or that has the U.S.’ best interests in mind," Hall said.FETÖ terror ringleader sends instructions to group membersAt least 16 FETÖ suspects arrested across TurkeyEmphasizing that FETÖ's U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen needs to be extradited to Turkey, he added that the U.S. government should also pay attention to the immigration issues related to FETÖ-linked charter schools."The schools should be removed from receiving tax dollars," he said. FETÖ and Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.Hall, in a previous panel, said he heard about the July 15 defeated coup from TV news while he was in the process of filming a documentary, and "it was no surprise" to him to learn that FETÖ was behind the coup attempt.Another speaker at the panel, Abraham Wagner, who is a lecturer in national security law at Columbia Law School, said the corruption in taxes and immigration that FETÖ commits in the U.S. needs to be examined thoroughly.He also said that FETÖ is not known in America in detail."There is not a great deal of awareness in America among the public or the media about what the Gülen movement is," Wagner said. "It is unfortunate that it hasn’t gotten the media coverage or official law enforcement coverage that it needs."Mary Addi, who formerly taught at a Gülen movement school in the U.S., also spoke at the panel.Addi said she first learned that her Turkish husband, who also taught at the school, was part of the movement when she realized he was giving 40 percent of his salary back to the movement."I said to my husband, 'Do you get that this is not legal? They are extorting money from you,'” she said, describing it as "illegal and money laundering".Stating that FETÖ attempted to force her husband to divorce her because she was investigating its corruption, Addi said she worked with her husband to gather evidence of wrongdoing at the schools and submitted it to the relevant authorities.However, she said she has been told that the biggest problem the agencies investigating the movement are facing is tracking the money. Addi also said she has been giving interviews to foreign media outlets while American media outlets turn a blind eye to the issue.“Where are our government officials? Why is our own country not doing anything about these schools? "There is not a doubt in my mind as to whether they are insidious, dangerous and terrorists."
US experts raise concern over FETÖ threat in America
Huawei, the world's largest maker of telecommunications network gear and the No. 3 smartphone supplier, has promised that Canberra will have complete oversight of 5G network equipment, which could include base stations, towers and radio transmission equipment.
That sort of oversight model has been accepted by other countries - notably the UK, where a special laboratory staffed with government intelligence officials reviews all Huawei products.
The rise of robots in manufacturing in Southeast Asia is likely to fuel modern slavery as workers who end up unemployed due to automation face abuses competing for a shrinking pool of low-paid jobs in a "race to the bottom", analysts said on Thursday.Drastic job losses due to the growth of automation in the region - a hub for many manufacturing sectors from garments to vehicles - could produce a spike in labour abuses and slavery in global supply chains, said risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.US experts raise concern over FETÖ threat in AmericaMore than half of workers in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines - at least 137 million people - risk losing their jobs to automation in the next two decades, the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) says.The risk of slavery tainting supply chains will spiral as workers who lose their jobs due to increased robot manufacturing will be more vulnerable to workplace abuses as they jostle for fewer jobs at lower wages, said Alexandra Channer of Maplecroft."Displaced workers without the skills to adapt or the cushion of social security will have to compete for a diminishing supply of low-paid, low-skilled work in what will likely be an increasingly exploitative environment," she said.PKK terrorist on most wanted list killed in east Turkey"Without concrete measures from governments to adapt and educate future generations to function alongside machines, it could be a race to the bottom for many workers," the head of human rights at Britain-based Maplecroft said in a statement.Farming, forestry and fishing, manufacturing, construction, retail and hospitality are the sectors in Southeast Asia where workers are most likely to be replaced by robots, Maplecroft said in an annual report, with Vietnam the country at most risk.Workers in the garment, textile and footwear industry - mostly women in countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam - face the biggest threat from automation in the region, Maplecroft said.The five countries the report lists are already considered high-risk for modern slavery as labour abuses are rife, wages low and the workforce dependent on low-skilled jobs, the firm said, with automation set to make things worse."Automation has always posed a risk to low-skilled jobs, but governments and business can determine how it impacts on workers," said Cindy Berman of the Ethical Trading Initiative, a group of unions, firms and charities promoting workers' rights."Technology can be disrupting, but it can also be part of the solution by creating opportunities for better jobs," its head of slavery strategy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Rise of robots fuels slavery threat for Asian factory workers: analysts
Other Western countries, including New Zealand, Canada and Germany, also say they have sufficient safeguards for assuring that Huawei equipment does not contain "back doors" or other mechanisms for secretly monitoring or collecting information.
But Australian intelligence agencies have told lawmakers that oversight will not allay their concerns, two political sources who have been briefed on the matter told Reuters.
"It is a Chinese company, and under Communist law they have to work for their intelligence agencies if requested," said one of the government sources. "There aren't many other companies around the world that have their own political committees."
Both sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Huawei has already been mostly shut out of the giant U.S. market over national security concerns. Its business serving small, rural telecom operators is now at risk after new attacks on the company in recent weeks by some U.S. lawmakers.
The move to ban Huawei in Australia comes as tensions mount over China’s growing power and ambitions in the region.
Relations between the two countries are at an all-time low after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year accused Beijing of meddling in Canberra's affairs, and China responded by slowing some Australian imports.
Australia's 5G service will require a dense network of towers that would then be leased to mobile providers such as Telstra Corp.
Mobile carriers typically have access to sensitive personal information, such as internet search history or emails. But in Australia and most other countries, there are strict laws governing when and how they can do so.
Australia's intelligence agencies fear that if mobile operators rely on Huawei's equipment, the Chinese company could develop a means of collecting data or even undermining the stability of the network. Chinese law requires organisations and citizens to support, assist and cooperate with intelligence work.
Huawei Australia's chairman, John Lord, said that law does not apply to its operations outside of China.
"That law has no legitimacy outside of China," Lord said. "Within that country, any information coming through us and any equipment we put into their national infrastructure is safe to the best of our ability, and it's secure."
AMERICAN INFLUENCE
In 2012, Australia banned Huawei from supplying equipment to the country's National Broadband Network, which has been hampered by technological failures.
Australia believes that the 5G network, which will provide mobile internet speeds 50 to 100 times faster than current technology, will be the cornerstone for future innovations such as driverless cars. That makes it crucial to keep the network secure.
Turnbull in February received briefings from the U.S. National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security on the threat from Huawei, one source familiar with the meeting told Reuters.
"The UK and New Zealand, they have decided that the risk of Huawei is worth it for the benefits of the network. For the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the U.S., it is not worth the risk," a second political source said.
AUSTRALIA-CHINA TENSIONS
Although Australia's intelligence agencies are unwavering in their advice, Turnbull has yet to formally sign off on the Huawei ban.
One of the sources familiar with the process said the government is "in no great rush to confirm the ban."
"It is going to highlight the anxiety that Australian lawmakers have about the rise of China, and it is not going to do any good for the Australian-China relationship," said Adam Ni, visiting fellow in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University.
Despite the trade pressure, Turnbull can ill afford to overrule the country's security authorities amid a rise of Chinese hawks within Australia's government.
In rare public testimony, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director general Duncan Lewis this year warned that foreign espionage, interference or sabotage could inflict "catastrophic harm" on the nation's interests - remarks that were widely considered a thinly veiled reference to China.
The warning spurred a backbench lawmaker, who sits on the country's important parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, on June 18 to urge Turnbull to reject Huawei, a source familiar with the details of the party-room meeting of the ruling government told Reuters.
Turnbull did not directly address the comment, the source said, leaving his own party uncertain of his leanings.
In legislation seen as aimed at China, Australia will soon require lobbyists to declare connections to foreign governments.
Canberra has also called for increased international aid to the Pacific to counter what it says is Beijing's attempt to exert greater influence.