Nancy Pelosi, who brought a squad of US lawmakers to Munich, argued passionately that dropping Huawei technology is about keeping democracy, until an unorthodox intervention by a Chinese diplomat left her facing a tough argument.
“National security, economy and values all come together on the Huawei issue,” Pelosi proclaimed during the third day of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), devoting the bulk of her press briefing to Huawei and Beijing’s “digital autocracy.”
Adopting or not adopting Huawei solutions – particularly their 5G products – “is about choosing autocracy over democracy on the information highway,” she insisted, likening the process to “putting the state police in the pocket of every consumer in these countries.”
Pelosi took aim at Huawei the day before, when she was a keynote speaker at MSC Saturday’s panel. Her passionate speech, delivered from an autocue, went awry when Fu Ying, a former Chinese envoy to the UK and a career diplomat, stole the show.
“I think my knowledge about how the world works is that technologies are tools,” Fu said, speaking in a quiet, reproving voice.
U.S. House Speaker @SpeakerPelosi plays up "Huawei threat" claim at Munich Security Conference. A Chinese diplomat's response draws applause from the audience. #Huaweipic.twitter.com/IbG8856xGN
She pointed out that China had used all kinds of Western technologies – including those of Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon – but had “maintained its political system, the system led by the Communist Party; it’s not threatened by the technologies.”
How come if Huawei technologies, with 5G, are introduced into Western countries, [they] will threaten the political system? Do you really think the democratic system is so fragile that it could be threatened by this single hi-tech company, Huawei?
