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Worrying About Huawei in Africa Misses the Bigger Issue

by Eric Olander
A monitor displays the logo for “Huawei” behind Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington,DC on July 15, 2020. Andrew Harnik / POOL / AFP

Say what you want about the marginally effective U.S. campaign against Huawei, they do deserve some credit for keeping the issue of network security at the forefront of the wider discussion about next-generation mobile telecommunications.

They’re absolutely right to be worried about the murky relationship between the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, and Huawei. Even though there isn’t any proof that the Shenzhen-based company has inserted backdoors into its networking equipment or, as U.S. officials fear, share customer data with Chinese authorities, it’s undeniably a legitimate and reasonable concern.

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