While speaking to the media at its headquarters in China, Huawei’s chairman Eric Xu has recently insisted that Canada should trust the telecommunications company not to spy for the Chinese government, while also making a weird comparison to Boeing as to why the company should be trusted.
However, analysts and political officials say that since Chinese corporations have a history of ignoring laws and protocols in foreign jurisdictions, it casts a doubt on claims made by the Huawei chief that the company would not break international law, The Star is reporting.
“They break contracts and employment conditions pretty much at will,” said Peter Kent, Conservative MP for Thornhill, Ont., who served as a federal minister and international executive co-chair of the China council under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He also referred to the $15-billion takeover of Calgary-based Nexen in 2012 by Beijing-based China National Offshore Oil Corporation:
“I have corporate constituents in Thornhill who have had trademark and patent violations which they’ve pursued at great expense and won, but … the Chinese company that was infringing on those rights ends up paying a very modest fine, and didn’t even take down the website that was selling the stolen intellectual property,” Kent said.
The government of Canada has yet to decide on whether to ban Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G networks.
