Some security experts have warned Southeast Asian nations of China’s “colonialist strategies” and to be wary of its investments in certain businesses, such as telecommunications, which could expose countries to cyber attacks.
Speaking at the recent Asean Summit in Thailand, United States National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien alluded to the Chinese giant, saying countries “should deal with each other as sovereigns and in accordance with the international law and customs.”
“The days that big countries could take advantage of small countries just because of their size, just because one country is big and one country is small, we don’t think that there’s any place for that in the international system of the 21st century.”
This sentiment was echoed by former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, where he spoke of the “creeping control” of China over telecoms and power assets in the Philippines.
In a televised interview, Colmenares cited the country’s third telecoms player, Dito Telecommunity, controlled by state-owned China Telecom. Given the Philippines’s maritime dispute with China, he said, “it is absurd for the Philippines to give [China] control of its telecommunications system.”
The Armed of Forces of the Philippines, he noted, signed a memorandum of agreement to allow Dito to put up cell towers and telecoms equipment in military installations nationwide—a move Colmenares and other experts said will make the country’s military vulnerable to Chinese hacking and espionage.
The former lawmaker also expressed grave concern over China’s co-ownership of the national grid as prone to cyber attacks.
“They [Chinese company] admitted in their annual report, it’s vulnerable to cyber attacks,” Colmenares said. “Even if China say it’s immune to cyber attacks, Beijing has proven, and some hackers have actually proved it, that anything can be hacked now.”
“Don’t tell us that our grid is safe from China when in fact it’s the largest stockholder in that company,” he added.
The security of the country’s national grid came to light after CNN reported in November that the grid is “under full control” of the Chinese government, and is at risk of shutdown in times of conflict. Lawmakers from both the Senate and the House of Representatives have announced plans to commence an inquiry into the National Grid Corp.’s issues.
China’s control goes beyond the power and telecoms sectors, as it has worked to establish what are said to be comprehensive and cooperative partnerships featuring “equality, mutual benefit and common development” in Latin American and Caribbean countries.
However, some sectors have warned that China’s investments in infrastructure could either enable greater economic activity that favor Chinese interests, or thrust those Latin American countries into “debt traps” as reported by Carlos Roa of the high-level policy publication The National Interest.
A case in point is Ecuador, where around 80 percent of their valuable oil output, equivalent to 58 percent, is paid back to China in return for the $18.4 billion worth of loans, which is a third of Quito’s public debt.
It was these risks that compelled former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to cite the onerous provisions in the repayment of loans from China.
“Should the Philippines default repaying the loans, China can seize patrimonial assets and those dedicated to commercial use by the Philippine government,” he warned.