After Prime Minister Mark Carney inked a new trading arrangement with China during his state visit last week, stakeholders are advising against revisiting the government’s 5G ban on Huawei.
As thawing bilateral relations between Canada and China produce new trading partnerships on electric vehicles and agricultural products, it would “not be wise” for Prime Minister Mark Carney to revisit the government’s 5G ban on the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, according to former Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Ward Elcock.
“There’s an important security rationale behind keeping them off the 5G network,” Elcock, who led CSIS from 1994 to 2004, told The Hill Times. “If you allow a foreign communications network into your system, then you’re creating holes and gaps.”
“I don’t think it should be on the table … and I’d be very surprised if it is.”
Carney’s (Nepean, Ont.) trip to China last week marked the first time a Canadian prime minister had visited the nation in more than eight years. Following then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s state visit in 2017, Canada-China relations deteriorated after the 2018 arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, B.C., which was followed by China’s imprisonment of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.) said she believes Huawei should not be “on the table” during the government’s trip to China, but she’s concerned about what she calls a developing pattern of the Liberals engaging with nations “where there are indications of concern.”
“I see the Carney administration setting aside human rights violations and Canada’s national security, and putting all of that on the back burner,” said Kwan, who herself has been victimized by suspected Chinese foreign interference. “Carney is actively pursuing these countries that have been flagged as a deep concern for Canada.”
