A former spy chief has said on Monday, Canada should halt the use of China’s giant Huawei technologies co limited and ban Huawei supplying its equipment to Canadian 5G network due to country’s national security risk.
Last week, China’s ambassador has threatened “repercussions” if Ottawa banned Huawei, a warning which Canadian authorities dismissed. Relations between both the nations have soured since Canada detained Huawei chief executive officer (CEO) Meng Wanzhou last month in Vancouver over the request of the United States to extradite her.
Richard Fadden, who served as the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency from 2009 to 2013, pointing out his evidence for banning Huawei wrote, “Canada’s government should ignore the threats and ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks to protect the security of Canadians,” in the Globe and Mail, according to Reuters news reports.
Citing the risk of espionage, several Canadian allies have already banned the use of Huawei products.
Fadden said, “If China would resort to putting Canadians to death to defend its corporate national champion, what it might do if the Chinese Communist Party had unfettered access to Canada’s vital communications networks?”
On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying termed Fadden’s remarks as “nonsense”.
A group of former ambassadors and 143 academics from across the world on Monday released an open letter to China’s President Xi Jinping urging him to release the two detained Canadian there.
They wrote: “(We) must now be more cautious about traveling and working in China and engaging our Chinese counterparts.”
“That will lead to less dialogue and greater distrust, and undermine efforts to manage disagreements and identify common ground. Both China and the rest of the world will be worse off as a result.”