U.S. to counter Chinese bid to build internet in PNG
30 September, 2018
The United States is working on a counteroffer to stop Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. from building internet infrastructure in Papua New Guinea, its top diplomat to Australia said on Friday.
The bid comes two years after Huawei first agreed to build a network there, and as the United States and its allies mount a vigorous campaign to check China’s rising influence in the region by deepening their own diplomatic ties and boosting aid.
It also follows Australia shutting Huawei out of contracts to build a national mobile network on security grounds, and blocking it from laying a subsea communications cable from Sydney to PNG and the Solomon Islands.
“We are working on a counter-offer,” U.S. Charge d’Affaires James Caruso said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, when asked about reports that Australia, Japan and the United States were looking to trump Huawei’s PNG project.