Advertisement
Philippines ‘has no evidence Huawei is a threat to national security’
- Acting communications minister Eliseo Rio says that in 10 years of operations the Chinese tech giant has given Manila no cause for concern
2-MIN READ2-MIN
The Philippine government does not regard Huawei as a national security threat because no evidence has emerged to suggest this is the case, a cabinet minister said on Friday.
Eliseo Rio, the acting head of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, was speaking in the wake of repeated American allegations that the tech giant is a front for Chinese intelligence.
Its accusations have prompted the other members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing community – Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – to question their dealings with the company.
Australia and Japan have imposed a full ban on the firm’s products, while Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, earlier this week ordered that Huawei be banned from supplying core parts of the country’s future 5G mobile phone network.
Advertisement
“There are five countries [the Five Eyes] who have expressed concerns, but almost all the world has Huawei communications,” Rio said on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Friday.
Advertisement
He said Huawei has been doing businesses in the Philippines for about 10 years and there had been no serious incidents that showed the company’s products were threats to his country’s national security.
“As long as there is no conclusive evidence of Huawei being a threat to our national security, and we have been going on for 10 years … there were no serious incidents that would tend to show that this is a threat to our national security,” he said.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x