“Controversial Huawei Donates $128k to Concordia University Amidst 5G Network Ban: Experts Warn of Risks”

Concordia University accepted a $128,000 donation from controversial Huawei last year, just weeks after Canada barred the Chinese giant from developing its 5G network on national security grounds.

• Read also: University of Montreal: a vice-rector very close to China

In May 2022, like several other countries, including the United States, the federal government banned the use of Huawei Technologies services and equipment for 5G network development.

The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, explained at the time that this decision was aimed at “protecting Canadians”, while the company, close to Beijing, is suspected of being able to spy through its telecommunications equipment.

However, in June 2022, barely a month after the federal government’s announcement, Concordia University received a $128,000 donation from Huawei. The money was allocated to a research project.

“The project is related to the analysis and quality assurance of code in free software. It is also about proposing techniques to improve the quality of the code”, indicated the holder.
university spokesman, Colin Danby.

Concordia University told us that there was no consideration expected from Huawei in exchange for this donation.

Although it is not strictly forbidden to do business with Huawei, several academic and national security experts have long warned universities about the risks of doing business near the Chinese government.

“As soon as we talk about an authoritarian country and openly hostile to Canada, any investment by companies from this country, especially for technologies that can also be used from a military point of view, is highly problematic,” says Christian Leuprecht, professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University.

Warnings

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has also been warning universities about this in recent years, especially during encounter tours of educational institutions.

“Using different means [bourses d’études, voyages parrainés, chaires de professeurs invités], [la Chine] works to advance [s]are goals. This threat does not come from the Chinese people, but from the Chinese Communist Party, which is executing a strategy aimed at making geopolitical gains,” commented CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam by email.

Different sensitivities

In Quebec, sensitivity to the threat differs from one university to another, we found, after contacting all the establishments.

While some universities have reduced or ceased their activities with Huawei, others still have ongoing research projects. Only one institution told us that it had recommended that it cease all its activities with Huawei, namely the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS).

“The position of ÉTS and its research department is to advise against any research achievement or initiative with Chinese companies and interests,” spokesperson Jean-Alexandre D’Etcheverry told us.

In addition, all the other universities contacted by The newspaper told us that they had not received a donation from Huawei in the past two years. The latest Huawei donation identified is an amount of $100,000 to Laval University spread over two years (2021 and 2022) for student scholarships in the field of optics and photonics.

We tried to reach Huawei, without response from the company.

The University of Montreal keeps its gift

The University of Montreal has finally decided to keep the donation of half a million dollars offered by two Chinese billionaires.

In 2016, two Chinese businessmen, Zhang Bin and Niu Gensheng, donated $550,000 and $140,000 respectively to the University of Montreal and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

In February, the Canadian daily Globe and Mail reported that the Chinese authorities would be behind these two donations, according to a conversation intercepted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Since then, the entire Board of Directors of the Trudeau Foundation has resigned and the organization has reimbursed the donation received.

For its part, the University of Montreal announced Friday that it will keep the donation and that it will reallocate the sums in other projects, affirming that it would be difficult for it to make a refund, in particular for tax reasons.

Last week, our Bureau of Investigation also reported that the former Vice-Rector for International Affairs and La Francophonie Guy Lefebvre, who orchestrated the donation of the two businessmen, has several links with Chinese institutions. and would have erased these mentions from his page on the Université de Montréal website, including the awards and medals received in recent years.