Malaysia’s Mahathir backs Huawei, snubbing US blacklist of Chinese telecoms giant
- The Southeast Asian nation’s prime minister has suggested the Trump administration’s campaign against the firm is hypocritical
- Kuala Lumpur has a two-decade relationship with Huawei and will not blindly follow Washington, experts say
In back-to-back public appearances in Tokyo, the 93-year-old premier dismissed the prospect of his country joining the likes of the United States and its allies – including Japan – in banning government purchases of the Shenzhen-based company’s telecommunications products.
He said while US President Donald Trump’s administration might have grounds for “condemning” Huawei over security concerns, banning it was “not the way to go”.
Huawei has flatly rejected these claims.
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Mahathir said: “When Israel anticipated attack by rockets by the Palestinians, they had an amazing system of protecting their country from missiles. I am quite sure America does what they like to stop Huawei from stealing their secrets.”
As for Malaysia, the second-time prime minister, known for his wry humour, said Huawei “can spy as much as they like because we have no secrets”.
In an earlier keynote speech at the Nikkei Future of Asia Conference, Mahathir said China currently boasted “the best technology in the world”, and that the US had to accept the new status quo.
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“We have to accept that the US cannot forever be the supreme nation [with] the best technology … [The West] must accept that this capability can also be found in the East. But if they want to have a situation where they are always ahead, and if not [they] will ban you, [they] will send warships to your country, that is not competition. That is threatening people.”
Although Malaysia has not taken any explicit sides in the ongoing trade war, analysts say the Southeast Asian nation has a clear stance on the Huawei issue.
“Malaysia’s position on Huawei should be read as taking a stand solely on Huawei, a company that produces affordable and high-quality technology and has been working with Malaysia for 20 years,” said China-Malaysia expert Ngeow Chow Bing.
Ngeow said Malaysia’s close working relationship with Huawei meant the country had no reason to turn it away just because the US was “determined to destroy Huawei”.
“The US government should not expect Malaysia to just follow suit because the Trump administration is taking action,” he said.
Company executives have said they use multiple suppliers, giving them an adequate hedge against Huawei being put out of the running as a vendor.
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Other nations have also issued partial or full boycotts of Huawei technology over fears of links to the Chinese government and the risk of state espionage.
The US has applied particular pressure on Huawei, banning federal agencies from using its equipment over security concerns – a ban that the company has challenged with a lawsuit.
This January, a number of US universities also set about getting rid of Huawei equipment to prevent losing federal funding, after Trump signed a law banning recipients of state funds from using equipment, services or components from a host of Chinese companies, including Huawei.
The Malaysian government previously announced its enthusiasm to adopt 5G technology – which Huawei is spearheading – although it will carry out its own security checks.
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Mahathir’s Thursday comments in support of Beijing and Huawei echo his government’s cordial stance with China since it came to power last May.
On Thursday, Chinese ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian in a statement commemorating the 45th anniversary of bilateral ties said he expected the relationship to deepen further with the help of the “great foresight of the leaders of both countries”.
