Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is struggling with negative perceptions in certain markets due primarily to its origins. Questions have been raised over the company’s telecommunications equipment and possible links with the Chinese government.
Although no evidence has been forthcoming to support these concerns, Scott Sykes, vice president and head of International Media Affairs said "Nothing simple is going to solve that challenge."
Sykes is under no illusion that the company faces a significant challenge, but is firm in his belief for the reasons for the negative perception. With respect to the United States in particular, Sykes said "The bar is a little bit higher for us, because of our heritage."
However, Sykes pointed to the trust shown in the company by the UK government, characterised by Chancellor Osbourne’s recent visit the Shenzhen campus. The company also cites the work it has done with CERN, where Huawei provided a cloud storage infrastructure to cope with the massive amounts of data generated by the Large Hadron Collider in its work to find the Higg’s Boson. Despite this, the US government remains unwilling to do business with Huawei.
Sykes is unequivocal about Huawei’s position, reiterating a statement that was made in a security report issued by the company, and co-authored by John Suffolk, now senior vice president of global cybersecurity with Huawei, but also former UK government CIO.
"We have never received a request to alter our equipment," Sykes said
"We are not involved in any way, shape or form in doing espionage on behalf of the Chinese government, or any government. We would never do that. The reason is that that would be corporate suicide – we would lose 70% of our business, $25 billion last year, overnight. We are not going to do that. We are not going to jeopardise our commercial success for the Chinese government, or any government."
When asked if had heard of any hard evidence of any company doing so, Sykes said that he could not speak for other companies, but he illustrated how Huawei, he believed, had done more than any other company to be open about not only its business reporting, which it is not under obligation to do as a private company, but also by making its source code available for examination through its Cyber Security Evaluation Centre in Banbury, UK.
"We have done our best to be open and transparent. Nobody else really does that," said Sykes. "The lack of trust broadly is about China, not specifically about Huawei. We accept it."
Despite the company’s various efforts to address security fears and negative perceptions, Sykes knows there is much work to be done and time to be taken in tackling this problem, but that it is also not without opportunity.
"We are welcome everywhere else in the world, apart from the US. We do think in time that will change, but how much time and what will be the catalyst for that change?"
"People are impressed by the fact that Huawei has risen to the challenge of a higher standard and is winning more business as a result, said Sykes.
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