Huawei's Global Cloud Strategy May Give 'Coercive Leverage'

LOS ANGELES - A new report suggests that Chinese telecommunication firm Huawei has successfully secured contracts to provide cloud infrastructure in emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America — a strategy that could allow Beijing to harvest important and sensitive information for "coercive leverage." 

The move comes as many developed economies such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and France are banning or restricting Huawei from their 5G networks.   The report, "Huawei's Global Cloud Strategy — Economic and Strategic Implications," published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank, identified 70 deals in 41 countries between Huawei and foreign governments or state-owned enterprises for cloud infrastructure and e-government services, a bundling that can cut administrative costs. The contracts were executed from 2006 until April 2021.  Most of the deals share three characteristics, according to report authors Jonathan E. Hillman and Maesea McCalpin.