How Huawei beat America’s anti-China 5G propaganda war in Southeast Asia, years before it even began

Huawei’s 5G technology is under fire in the West, but there is a region of the world where Washington’s anti-China propaganda war was lost long ago: Southeast Asia

The key to its victory dates back nearly 20 years, to when arrogant Western telecom giants failed to recognise it as a worthy competitor

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Published: 12:45pm, 20 Apr 2019Updated: 10:29am, 22 Apr 2019

The new millennium is yet to dawn, the internet is in its infancy and Apple’s iPhone is but a distant sparkle in the eye of Steve Jobs. Technology is filling the world with both hope and fear. On one hand, a new generation of pocket-sized handsets, led by the soon-to-be released Nokia 3310, have made mobile phones truly mobile for the first time – offering monochrome visions of the future that pack battery lives of up to 11 days. On the other, the world is gripped by a deep paranoia that a sinister-sounding “millennium bug” will usher in a digital apocalypse.

The year is 1999 and the telecommunications industry is barely recognisable from today. Yet, much as things have changed, much seems familiar. On one hand, next-generation 5G internet technology promises once unthinkable download speeds and a brave new world of smart cities, augmented reality and the internet of things. On the other, countries across the globe are stalked by fears the new technology will leave them vulnerable to sinister cyberspying bogeymen.

Driving most of those fears is a United States that many experts say has been caught napping when it comes to developing 5G technology. Confronted by the emerging – and seemingly sudden – rise of the Chinese company Huawei, the US has been doing its best to demonise the competition, warning its allies that using the firm’s equipment will leave them vulnerable to espionage by Beijing.

It’s a propaganda war the US has often shown signs of winning, particularly in the West, where Washington has been able to leverage its intelligence sharing agreements to influence its allies. In the wake of such pressure, countries as far afield as Germany and New Zealand have been among those to have considered bans on Huawei from their 5G networks.

Still, there is a corner of the globe where the US has already lost its propaganda war: Southeast Asia. And it did so long ago, back in the days of monochrome mobiles.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, which is among the countries allied to the US to have expressed concerns over Huawei’s 5G technology. Photo: Mark Mitchell

HELLO HUAWEI

In 1999, the Shenzhen-based company was a minnow whose entry into the Southeast Asian market made barely a ripple. Back then, the industry was dominated by far bigger players such as Nokia, Ericsson, and the US companies Motorola and Alcatel Lucent. Huawei could go mostly unnoticed as it went about picking up relatively minor deals installing fibre optic cables for service providers.