Are U.S. Concerns On China's Wireless Telecom Deal With South Korea Justified?

A man looks at a Huawei mobile phone as he shops at an electronic market in Shanghai January 22, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

Red Flag Raised On Chinese Telecom Deal -- Eli Lake, Daily Beast

As Beijing bids to lay a wireless network in South Korea—a country that stations thousands of U.S. troops—two senators have voiced concerns that the the system could be used to spy.

Only days before Vice President Joe Biden’s tour of east Asia this week, two influential Democratic senators quietly asked the Obama administration to evaluate the intelligence risks posed to the United States by a proposed telecom deal in South Korea.

The deal would allow Chinese telecom giant Huawei to help build a broadband network for South Korea. While U.S. senators usually pay attention to business dealings closer to home, the prospect of Huawei equipment embedded inside South Korea’s new telecom network was enough to raise the concerns of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chairwoman Dianne Feinstein.

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My Comment: U.S. concerns stem from the fact that they believe that the Chinese will end up doing exactly what the Americans have been doing for years .... intercepting and listening into another countries communications. But what surprises me about this China - South Korean deal is that the South Koreans permitted it. Some of the worlds top electronics companies are based in South Korea .... you would have thought that they would have grabbed this contract.