Serbia chooses links with China to develop economy, telecoms despite U.S. warning campaign
"Serbia has signed two non-binding agreements with Huawei since 2017 - one on strategic partnership in the development of broadband internet, the other on a “smart cities” project that includes data gathering, storing and management.
HUAWEI ARRIVES IN SERBIA TO STAY
Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said last year that state-owned Telekom Srbija was working with Huawei on a 150-million-euro ($177.48 million) project to establish high-speed broadband internet in the Balkan country of seven million people.
As for a state-of-the-art 5G network, a sector where Huawei has a dominant market position, Irini Reljin, Serbia’s assistant minister for trade and telecommunications, said Belgrade planned to issue tenders for frequencies by early 2021.
“We...adhere to procedures of public procurements and EU regulations which stipulate we must have technological neutrality that will guarantee all operators the right to purchase equipment of any manufacturer,” Reljin told Reuters.
Huawei, however, is also involved in a project with Serbia’s Interior Ministry entailing the installation of over 1,100 surveillance cameras at an undisclosed cost for Belgrade’s Safe City surveillance system of traffic and crime control.
Reljin said Serbian databases were safe from outside interference. “For us the data safety is the same, regardless of technology and its generation, so for now we are in full compliance with EU regulations.”
Serbian tech experts have also been working with Huawei on the improvement of face-recognition software.
“Huawei has arrived in Serbia to stay for a long time,” Nenad Popovic, Serbia’s minister for technological development, told reporters in May.
In March, Serbian officials, the Chinese ambassador to Belgrade and Huawei representatives opened a data storage centre in the central city of Kragujevac, the fourth largest in Serbia.
Top Chinese officials including President Xi Jinping have visited Serbia while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic - who critics accuse of seeking to stifle dissent - has described ties with Beijing as “iron” and Xi as his “brother”.
Bosko Jaksic, a columnist with Belgrade’s Politika daily, criticised Huawei’s presence, calling it “just a paradigm ...of the aggressive expansion of China...
“The long-term consequences of what this Chinese ‘investment occupation force’ may bring remain to be seen,” he said."
Andy Huang - Jewelry dealer and CCP member
"Andy Huang, Core Infrastructure Manager of IT at Dominion Voting, previously worked for CCP China Telecom in 1998-2002, has a jewelry shell company called OrientalNet Consulting.
Andy Huang currently works as the Core Infrastructure Manager of Information Technology at Dominion Voting Systems. Earlier, he worked at China Telecom for four years between 1998 and 2002. The company is wholly run by the Chinese government. Huang indicates on his LinkedIn profile that he studied at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
During his tenure with China Telecom, Huang was tasked with several projects including ‘Xiamen Metropolitan-are broadband network’, ‘Xiamen IDC Project’, and ‘OA Intranet infrastructure reformation project’. The exact role Huang played in these projects is not known. Huang has also worked with Cisco, a company that contributed significantly to the establishment of the Great Chinese Firewall."
"The U.S. Department of Defense has identified China Telecom as having collaborated with the Chinese military for over 20 years. In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and several other federal agencies had called for a complete ban on China Telecom in April due to national security concerns. Ever since his history with China Telecom became public knowledge, Huang has deleted both China Telecom and Dominion as employers from his LinkedIn profile."
"Andy Huang, Core Infrastructure Manager of IT at Dominion Voting"
In 2019 NBC had some concerns: Chinese parts, hidden ownership, growing scrutiny: Inside America's biggest maker of voting machines
"That’s starting to change. A new level of scrutiny of the election system, spurred by Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, has put ES&S in the political spotlight. The source of the nation’s voting machines has become an urgent issue because of real fears that hackers, whether foreign or domestic, might tamper with the mechanics of the voting system.
That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines."
It is funny how they focus on ES&S when Dominion also has major issues and is not a US company. Yes, they have an offices here, but they are from Canada.