Editorial | CARICOM needs joint Huawei-tech position

Prime Minister Andrew Holness performed a little-noticed but important geopolitical act last week. He cut the ribbon to formally open Huawei’s new offices in Kingston, which was built at a cost of $300 million and from which the Chinese tech giant will continue its efforts to rustle up business in the Northern Caribbean.

Symbolically, Mr Holness’ presence reiterated to the United States that Jamaica does not intend to dump its relations with China, and certainly not with a technology company that can help to transport the country firmly into the digital era. Put another way, Kingston feels certain that it can, and that it is in its interest to simultaneously maintain good relations with Beijing and Washington.

At least, that is how we interpret the development. In which event, Mr Holness is right, and has the support of this newspaper. Nonetheless, this is not a matter that Jamaica should pursue on its own. The question of the acquisition of technology, and how that might impact relations with China and the United States and their allies, is one on which the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) should seek common ground, rather than members individually fending in a perilous environment.

The United States has declared China a strategic rival. And President Joe Biden has made no secret of his wish to contain Beijing’s growth as a global, economic, military, and technological power.

POTENTIAL DANGER

Few entities symbolise China’s rapid emergence as does Huawei. The company is a world leader in the development of digital information systems and has been ahead of the pack with 5G technology. It has supplied its technologies to the West’s big telecoms and information management firms – until the United States stepped in with warnings of potential danger to national security. Given China’s authoritarian political system, Washington argued, it is likely that Huawei would be prevailed upon to infect the information systems of the companies it services with spyware. It would probably also share customers’ information with Beijing’s authorities.

Washington has also accused Huawei of stealing American and Western technology, and for three years, up to October 2021, the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was under house arrest in Canada, awaiting the outcome of a US extradition request, ostensibly for being party to the breaking of the US sanctions against Iran. The release of Ms Meng was believed to be part of a political deal involving the freeing of two Canadian citizens jailed in China.

This month, Mr Biden placed hefty restrictions on the sale of semiconductor technology to China, aiming to suffocate, or severely set back, Beijing’s development of a microchip industry.

Even Jamaica has not been immune to lectures from the United States about getting in too deeply with China – either as a strategic partner, or using its firms to supply communications and information/data management technologies.

In 2020, for instance, the then US ambassador to Jamaica, Donald Tapia, lashed out against the acquisition by Mahoe Gaming, a new lottery company, of technology developed by the Chinese firm Genlot Game Technology. Bizarrely, Mr Tapia also claimed that he was told by an executive of a domestic telecoms company that his mobile phone had been bugged by the Chinese Embassy, apparently without the incident being catapulted to the Jamaican Government or its law-enforcement agencies.

ENSURING PROSPERITY

At the opening of the Huawei building, Mr Holness said that deploying digital technologies was one way of ensuring that “Jamaica prospers in the 21st-century economy”. Huawei is a potential partner in this venture, he suggested.

“The company provides cutting-edge connectivity technology and has played an essential role in the growth from GSM to UMTS wireless technology, and continues to improve Jamaica’s data penetration with LTE deployments.” Mr Holness said the investments signal strong confidence in Jamaica.

“The investment will be of benefit to both Jamaica and the region. We welcome this investment and commend Huawei for taking this decision, and look forward to their continued growth in Jamaica and in the region.”

Ringing, frontal, full-throated endorsements are not generally Mr Holness’ style in dealing with presumably delicate foreign policy/geopolitical issues – assuming he perceived this as such. Nonetheless, it certainly would not have gone unnoticed in Washington. Back channel replies will be forthcoming, if they have not yet been received.

But Mr Holness is right. Technology is transformative. It is in Jamaica’s interest to get the best from whatever source. It is also in the region’s interest. That is why it makes sense that CARICOM should formulate a joint position to face any pushback from Washington. The community may well be a gnat next to the United States, but together its members have greater insulation than as individual entities.