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Huawei reportedly helped North Korea build out 3G network in secret
A new report could ultimately prove another bombshell in Huawei's ongoing conflicts with the U.S. government. New documents obtained by The Washington Post tie the Chinese hardware giant to North Korea's commercial 3G wireless network.
If proven, the ties would be yet more fodder for the U.S., which has already dinged the company over charges of violating Iran sanctions. The government has also investigated potential ties between Huawei and North Korea for years, though concrete links have apparently remained elusive.
This latest report arrives by way of a former Huawei employee, with confirmation and supporting documents from other sources who have also requested to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. For its part, Huawei has stated that it has "no business presence" in the embattled country.
"Huawei is fully committed to comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries and regions where we operate, including all export control and sanction laws and regulations," it said in a statement offered to the press. Notably, the statements appear to apply primarily to its current business offerings, while declining to comment on the past.
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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/huawei-sues-fcc-to-stop-ban-on-huawei-gear-in-us-funded-
Huawei has sued the Federal Communications Commission over the agency's order that bans Huawei equipment in certain government-funded telecom projects.
[...] The FCC voted unanimously on November 22 to ban Huawei and ZTE equipment in projects paid for by the commission's Universal Service Fund (USF). The order will affect many small telecom providers that rely on the companies' network gear.
[...] "The US government has never presented real evidence to show that Huawei is a national security threat," Song said. "That's because this evidence does not exist. When pushed for facts, they respond that 'disclosing evidence might also undermine US national security.' This is complete nonsense."
[...] "We've built networks in places where other vendors would not go. They were too remote, or the terrain was difficult, or there just wasn't a big enough population," he said. "In the US, we sell equipment to 40 small wireless and wireline operators. They connect schools, hospitals, farms, homes, community colleges, and emergency services."
Hoftstra University law professor Julian Ku said that "even a small [Huawei] victory in the case, one that makes the FCC go and start the process over again, would be a huge victory for them," according to The New York Times. But it may be a difficult case for Huawei to win because US courts usually give federal agencies "a tremendous amount of deference," Ku said.
Previously:
Huawei Funds $56M in Academic Research in Canada. That Has Some Experts Concerned
How China Is Building A World-Beating Phone Network
FCC Tells US Telcos: Buy Chinese Kit And You Won't See Another Dime From Us
American Giants Get 90 Days To Wrap Up Deals With 'Dangerous' Huawei
Huawei's First Google-Free Phone Stripped And Searched: Repair Not Too Painful... Once You're In
U.S. Chief Technology Officer Urges Europe to Take a Stand Against Huawei
Microsoft President Says US Government Isn't Being Open About Huawei Ban
Huawei: ARM Cortex-A77 Cores Would Shorten Battery Life
Huawei Might Put its IOT OS on Mobile Phones After All
Huawei Announces HarmonyOS, a Smartphone OS and Android Alternative
Huawei Doesn't See Open Source as the Fix for Spying Accusations (but They Should)
Huawei Reportedly Helped North Korea Build Out 3G Network in Secret
Huawei's Android Alternative Lives on... for IoT
What Huawei To Go: Hundreds Of Chinese Tech Giant's US Workers To Get Pink Slip
Trump Administration Will Loosen Restrictions Against Huawei
Huawei Soldiers on, Announces Nova 5 and Kirin 810
Huawei Blacklisting Predicted to Cause DRAM Prices to Drop 15%
NSA Spied on Chinese Government and Huawei
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @06:50PM (2 children)
Does the 3G network help the regime by enabling "Stalin's dream" smartphones, or hurt the regime by allowing more people to communicate?
Forgot Stallman's name for a second, found it by Googling "freetard leader".
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday July 23 2019, @08:47PM
Turns out the internet mostly just enables dumbshit nationalists to go onto yelp and review disputed territories for their own state.
And the few things that are actually subversive are easy to block, at least block well enough that only the dedicated and technically minded(i.e. losers) can find them
(Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday July 23 2019, @10:56PM
Neither, it is to allow lil'Kim to continue to stream his low quality Double Team VHS recording starring Dennis Rodman and Jean Claude Van Damme as he make his regular trip across the country to attend various human sacrifices in his name.
Oh and lets not forget, be on standby to answer when Emperor Xi calls as well.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @08:18PM (15 children)
how dare a chinese company not give a flying rats ass about US trade policy or sanctions and do the thing they do for a living! those bastards!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday July 23 2019, @08:44PM (9 children)
I know. Also imagine North Koreans having cell service. How will we ever hold the dictator that withholds his citizens' needs to account if we don't withhold his citizens' needs.
There's something special about US foreign policy that manages to slide us into the wrong side of literally every single issue, even when the other side is a petty dictator inheriting a country from his family and instituting an unworkable authoritarian society.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday July 23 2019, @09:48PM (5 children)
You actually think that even a minority of "regular citizens" are allowed to have cell service? As opposed to, cell service for his sycophants?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @11:10PM (1 child)
The sycophants do not need the cell service. They can easily get encrypted radios from China and have service areas that are much larger than a 3G base station, at lower cost. The 3G is needed only if the government wants to provide wireless service of low security to a pretty large civilian section of the society - say, including top managers of every business (C*O in western terms.)
It would be not rational to guess what is happening within NK or what the glorious leader wants to happen. He is young enough, and there is a chance that he understands how unsustainable the policy of his predecessors is. It does not help that SK's politics is designed around the conflict, rather than around the solution - they have laws prohibiting contacts with NK. The South does not want to unify with the North, and they have reasons for that.
Even if Huawei did sell the equipment, if they are not complete idiots, the hardware was sold to some fly-by-night company, maybe even foreign, and then resold. Anyway, given the dense fog of war around Huawei, the best an observer can do is to wait and see.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday July 24 2019, @12:34PM
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 24 2019, @01:45PM
People won't be allowed to have cell phones. They are not even allowed to own cars.
Privately owned cars (not owned by the government) are extremely rare and have special license plates. (seen in a video by a YouTuber visiting NK as a tourist. So it must be true!)
Pigs not displaying registered tail numbers can qualify as unidentified flying objects and violate FAA regulations.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 24 2019, @04:34PM (1 child)
Well, Freeman - you've kinda struck a nerve there. Bear in mind that I was part of that infamous "Cold War". Not a big part, but I was one of the millions of cogs in the machinery. Back then, we were constantly reminded of what hell life behind the Iron Curtain was. But, funny thing . . . a reasonably large number of Russians have disputed the propaganda. True, it seems most Russians, and most Eastern Euros, were happy enough to see the Soviet fail. But, those accounts of hell? Not so much. Yes, Stalin could have been Satan incarnate, but Stalin finally died. What of life behind the Iron Curtain, then?
Today? Is North Korea as bad as we are told? Or is it maybe even worse? Or, is it maybe 80% hype?
Along with a lot of other people, I'd really like to know what life is like in Li'l Kim's kingdom. Sure, Kim is nucking phutts, but maybe he's less insane than all of our governments claim? Flying over Pyŏngsŏng in Google Earth, it's pretty obvious that not everyone owns a car - but cars aren't rare, either. Do virtually all of them belong to government? Maybe - further north in Sunchŏn, there are entire neighborhoods without a car in view.
Yodok Concentration Camp? Not a car in sight. I guess not even the base commander is entitled to a car?
But, inquiring minds really do want to know. How much of the bullshit is bullshit, and how much is for reals?
A MAN Just Won a Gold Medal for Punching a Woman in the Face
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 24 2019, @05:06PM
While, some of these news outlets may not be as good as the others, I'm pretty sure, they're not all wrong.
https://listverse.com/2017/12/19/10-horrifying-accounts-of-north-koreas-prison-camps/ [listverse.com]
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-stories-of-escape/ [cbsnews.com]
https://www.ted.com/talks/hyeonseo_lee_my_escape_from_north_korea [ted.com]
https://www.therichest.com/shocking/15-north-korean-defector-stories-that-will-give-you-chills/ [therichest.com]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11138496/Escape-from-North-Korea-How-I-escaped-horrors-of-life-under-Kim-Jong-il.html [telegraph.co.uk]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday July 23 2019, @10:29PM (1 child)
Assuming those documents are even real.
The Washington Post piece is littered with unnamed sources, which is a legitimate journalistic practice, but also makes it really easy for a spook to get some US government disinformation across.
Germany, for instance has been pressuring the US for more than 2 years to provide evidence that Huawei is actually the security threat they say it is but no evidence has been forthcoming.
If these documents really are legitimate, then all it proves is that Huawei has broken US sanctions, not that they have backdoors in their networking products, which has been the US' position the whole time.
I am going to go right on with assuming that this is just the latest shot in the ongoing Trade War™ (Which is good, and easy to win©).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday July 24 2019, @12:41PM
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 23 2019, @11:13PM
Exactly. It's cell service with technology at least 5-10 years out of date. These double embargoes make us look a little bit petulant and bitter sometimes, especially with respect to Cuba. I understand North Korea is a threat, but demanding nobody else on the planet do regular business with them is impractical. We can make that demand in regards to military tech and weapons sales, but extending it to basic technology like communications and agriculture seems a bit much. Sure we can say that the average citizen might not benefit, but we don't actually know what would happen if North Korea could afford to do something for its citizens if we're actively fighting their ability to do it.
Heck, US companies should be able to sell farm equipment there if they could.
God forbid their lives get a little better, and more informed from the outside.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23 2019, @09:36PM
If they don't give a flying rat's ass, why are they fighting tooth and nail the US sanctions? Can't have it both ways.
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Tuesday July 23 2019, @10:17PM (3 children)
Sure, they can ignore US trade policy all they want. But they lied to a US bank (HSBC has locations in the US) about doing business with countries under US sanctions, and that is a US crime. So don't whine if your executives get thrown in jail.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @12:03AM (2 children)
Did they lie in the USA to a bank, or did they lie in China to a bank that also has branches in the USA ?
And is the executive you want to imprison the one who lied or are you imposing collective punishment?
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Wednesday July 24 2019, @04:14AM (1 child)
The one they arrested, the CFO, is the one accused of lying. It was not in the US, but HSBC is considered to also a US bank. It is their choice to operate here and expose themselves and their customers to US jurisdiction.
Huawei should remember that the US is still at war with North Korea. It is a dangerous game to do business with both.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 24 2019, @08:01AM
Except US jurisdiction is what US defines it - which means "the entire fucking world". One of very few countries to try to fuck everyone like that. See Kim Dotcom for an example here.
So now how about we fucking arrest the liars that started the Iraq war? Oh yes, in America, protected.....
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday July 24 2019, @01:15AM (1 child)
I bet Huawei has webons ob massss destrubtion, too!
INVADE! INVADE!
Really?! REALLY!? Huawei is a company like Google, Microsoft, etc... a company trying to make profits. NK said "Hey... help us, we give you money" and Huawei said "Okay, you give us money we do this thing you want to pay us money to do"
IS THIS NOT CAPITALISM (Gods gift to America) AT ITS' CORE?!?!
But it's not an American company, so BAD...BAD HUAWEI! BAD! WE MUST RUB YOUR NOSE IN THE MONEY.
Jeebuz. If an American company had gotten the contract, everyone would be all like "YAY AMERICA, SPREADING FREEDOM AND THE AMERICAN PIE GOOEY DICK SCENE AROUND THE WORLD! YAAAAY!"
Jeeeeeebuzzzz.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 24 2019, @04:04PM
Maybe cut down on the outrage a little bit? Assuming, Huawei did this, they did it inspite of the sanctions the USA had against NK, because NK is a Nazi like hell for their own citizens. Google would rightly deserve to be treated in such a way, if they'd done the same thing. The difference, is that Huawei feels like they can do business in America without abiding by our rules. Then again, Google has a bit of that in them, too, I suspect.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 24 2019, @01:48PM
Doesn't NK know, doesn't Huawei know, that 5G is all the rage now?
But 5G has some risks, dude. Like supposedly brain cancer, like totally, man.
But the biggest risk of 5G is being overcharged because the mobile operator hypes 5G as supposedly bringing YOU some supposed benefit that you must have right now. And special new hidden 5G fees!
Pigs not displaying registered tail numbers can qualify as unidentified flying objects and violate FAA regulations.