The ongoing “tech cold War” between China and the US has its proxy wars, and one of these is being fought within the infrastructures that support the Italian cyberspace.
While China fights through sheer economic power to convince Italy to keep the doors open to its 5G tech, the US has been pressuring its allies to ban it from their network infrastructures as a mean to stem the risk of foreign espionage (an accusation that’s rejected by Beijing).
The latest instalment of this saga is the “Clean Network” initiative, unveiled by US secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently toured Europe to get allied nations to join the program. On Tuesday, the Chinese foreign minister Wang Li started from Rome to go on a counter-tour to check on its economic partners and tally the losses in favour of the US.
Essentially, to become part of the Clean Network entails that a nation should “allow only trusted vendors” in the 5G networks, which in turn translates to banning Huawei or similar Chinese tech firms susceptible to their government’s requests for data. The initiative is also based on a series of international digital trust standards, including the EU’s 5G cybersecurity toolbox.
Italy, though leaning towards the American stance on Chinese tech out of security concerns, cannot ban it outright. Instead, the Italian government choose a two-fold approach (legal and technical) that makes it harder for telco companies to partner up with Chinese firms and sets up a “cyber-perimeter”, basically an oversight body to ensure the network’s safety via monitoring.
The first part of the Italian strategy involves a government task force and a vetting process for ensuring the safety of non-European (read: Chinese) components, as well as routine security checks and access to the 5G components’ source code. This makes it “near impossible” for a Chinese firm to clear the security threshold.
Earlier this summer, major Italian telco company TIM sought to anticipate these measures (that were confirmed shortly thereafter) by not inviting Huawei in its tender to build 5G infrastructures in Italy and Brazil.
Formiche.net reached out to Franco Frattini, former foreign minister and European Commissioner and currently president of the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI). He argued that these matters are chiefly political, not technical, and that the bureaucratic and technical limitations that Italy imposed on Chinese 5G tech don’t exculpate the country from having to choose a side between China and the US.
“It’s not about pleasing [US president Donald] Trump or his supporters,” he stressed while talking about the broadband deal, adding that it was expected that the American diplomatic world would have protested and that an eventual change in presidency in November is not going to change a thing.
Therefore, argued Mr Frattini, Italy should fully join the “Clean Network” initiative without further ado. “In this moment in history […] we’re witnessing the weakening of the strategic-defensive alliance between EU and USA, a decades-old pillar of Italy’s foreign policy. We cannot deal another blow to it, as it could be fatal.”
The expert also stressed that China is an important commercial partner, not an ally – something that was implicitly expressed by foreign minister Luigi Di Maio during his meeting with his Chinese counterpart. Granted, the Italian government as a whole was never as clear as Mr Di Maio on Tuesday, but Rome will soon have to prove its commitment to either side – the reality check lies in the developments of the 5G and broadband dossiers.
(Photo: Twitter, @StateDept
