‘Huawei poses threat to national security’: Arunachal Pradesh MLA urges Centre to ban

Pasighat West MLA, Arunachal Pradesh, Ninong Ering has urged the Centre to ban the Chinese telecom vendor Huawei Technologies Company saying that it poses threat to national security. In this regard, the MLA wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 2^nd, 2020.

He welcomed the Central government’s step to ban 59 Chinese apps on the grounds of engaging in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India.

“Under Chinese law and Chinese governance in practice, Huawei very likely cannot refuse any demands for cooperation or information from the Chinese government and it could be reasonably expected to make such demands. Given the opaqueness of the Chinese regime, it will be all the more difficult to find out if any such demand has been made by the government. Chinese law is perfectly explicit on these matters: Chinese firms are required to help with all requests of intelligence gathering or requests for information by public officials,” Ering wrote in the letter.

Also read: TikTok responds to ban, says it has not shared any Indian users’ info with foreign Govt

Ban on Chinese apps

Amid the border tensions between India and China, the Indian government on June 29^th, 2020 banned 59 Chinese mobile apps, terming them prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity, defense of the country.

In an official statement, the IT Ministry said it has received many complaints from various sources, including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India".

Responding to the ban, TikTok India claimed that it did not share any user information with any foreign government including the Chinese government.

“TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared any information on our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese government. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity,” said Nikhil Mehta, TikTok India head.

TikTok was among the top 10 apps available on Google Play store as well as Apple App store with nearly 120milion active users in India.

US bans Huawei, ZTE Corporation

Meanwhile, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 30^th, 2020 formally designated Chinese telecom vendors Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation, all their parent and subsidiaries, as well as affiliate firms, as “national security threats”.

The move is expected to put additional pressure on Huawei and ZTE, which have been accused of being close to the Chinese government and spying for them by sharing data of US citizens.

Huawei is the world’s largest maker of telecom equipment and the second largest maker of mobile phone parts. The company has been at the forefront of innovation that has allowed many companies in developing and as well as developed economies to build large telecom infrastructure at very low costs.

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