Japan Looks at Huawei & ZTE Equipment

It seems like Japan has cleared Huawei (no statement about ZTE was made) in an examination of their equipment.  This story appeared in today's Wall Street Journal, but I found it improbable.  It appears to be more wishful thinking and politics mixed into the business of Chinese and Japanese businesses. 

First, there is no way to verify equipment used by any country in this type of advanced technology.  What would a country be looking for?  If there were special hardware modifications that made the equipment accessible by Chinese intelligence services, would the Japanese - or anybody else for that matter - be able to find it?  Anyone who says "Yes" to that is dreaming.   There are too many variables involved and too many places for that kind of modification to take place.  It can be in hardware, firmware, or software and the means of intelligence collection might be introduced at a later date via software or firmware upgrades.  The Chinese are not going to be stupid enough to give the Japanese intelligence-collection components that can be tested and discovered.  Even when we know where those components are, they are very difficult to pinpoint. 

So, why pretend to do this national security testing?  The Japanese, particularly Softbank, have a lot of money invested in technology agreements that involve Chinese components from both companies.  Finding a problem with Huawei or ZTE might limit the ability of Japanese network companies to continue down the path of 5G networks.  The rest of the world, and the Japanese public in particular, must believe that these components are safe, whether they can be reliably tested or not.  Better to say, "Yes, we tested them and we are confident they are safe" which kind of paraphrases the Softbank spokesperson's comments, than let others know they may not be as safe as they make out.  A few years ago, David Sanger wrote an article for the New York Times that described what he said was the National Security Agency going into Huawei's networks and looking at what its leaders were doing.  If that story is true, the US does not have doubts about what Huawei is doing.  Maybe for Japan the business deals are worth more than the risk.