Brazilians are looking at legal ways to ban the use of China’s high-speed Internet technology. According to the son of the Brazilian president, Beijing wants to carry out cyber espionage operations. For an Argentinian expert, with or without Chinese 5G, our web data is bought and sold for purposes we don't know.
Buenos Aires (AsiaNews) – The Brazilian government is studying legal ways to ban the use of 5G systems by Huawei, the Chinese hi-tech giant and world leader in the development of this technology.
The reason is the same raised by the United States and the European Union, namely possible risks to the security of data transiting through its high-speed Internet connections.
None other than Eduardo Bolsonaro, a member of the Brazilian House of Deputies and a son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, gave the kick-off for the dispute over 5G development in Brazil.
In a number of public statements, Bolsonaro Jr. claimed that Huawei is trying to conquer the Latin American market to carry out cyber espionage operations.
He asserts that through its 5G technology, the Chinese company can hack into the private information of individuals and companies that use it.
Eduardo Bolsonaro's remarks sparked a diplomatic row between Chinese and Brazilian authorities; some tweets described Brazil’s treatment of Huawei as “offensive” and “disrespectful”.
According to Ramiro Podetti, an Argentinian political scientist and dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Montevideo, it will be difficult for the Bolsonaro administration to exclude Huawei from developing Brazil’s 5G network.
He notes that the technological offer around 5G is and will be at the centre of the global geopolitical battleground, even more than military competition.
“The Bolsonaros,” Podetti told AsiaNews, “are romantics who have belatedly discovered the totalitarian nature of China.
“We live in another type of regime, where there is no totalitarianism, but where everything is commodified. If another 5G supplier (other than Huawei) is chosen, it won't be very different” because “the problem of information management will remain in any case.”
For Podetti, China’s regime is one of “universal surveillance”; however, even in the West, with capitalism rather than communism, “our data is bought and sold for purposes we do not know.”