【英语科技】美前高官加入华为合作伙伴董事会

A former top official in the US defence department during the George W. Bush administration has joined the board of Amerilink, a consultancy that has teamed up with Huawei of China in a bid for a major US telecommunications contract.

Gordon England, who served as deputy secretary of defence and homeland security, was working under the Bush administration in 2008 when the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or Cfius, forced Huawei to abandon a bid to takeover a US technology company because of security concerns.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr England said he has joined Amerilink because he was “very impressed” by the company’s plans to offer US carriers independent verification that technology manufactured abroad could be used in US communications systems securely.

He was invited to join the board by William Owens, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served as a consultant to Huawei and is now chairman of Amerilink.

But Mr England said he could not unequivocally vow that Amerilink had the technological capabilities to ensure that Huawei technology was secure.

“My personal view is that it isn’t so complicated. It is doable. It is a function of spending the right amount of money,” said Mr England. “The objective here is to satisfy the US that there is no security risk.”

Amerilink has submitted a joint bid with Huawei to serve as an equipment provider to Sprint Nextel, the US carrier. Under the deal being proposed, Amerilink would purchase equipment directly from Huawei that would then be tested and integrated into Sprint’s network by the US company and its US employees, many of whom are former Sprint executives. Amerilink is not known to be working with any other companies.

Mr England said he was motivated in part by a desire to improve US-China relations. While he said he was familiar with concerns about Huawei within the US government, Mr England said that the US was also grappling with another issue: most technology is manufactured abroad. Amerilink, Mr England says, could offer the US government assurances that hardware and software was being examine before being integrated into US networks.

“In my judgment, you are better off having equipment you can validate as opposed to just having equipment,” Mr England says.

Asked about whether he shared the concerns that the defence department and other US agencies expressed at the time of Huawei’s joint bid for 3Com, Mr England declined to address specific concerns.

“I’m familiar with the policy of the US and familiar with the technical concern. And I share those. But I feel like what I have heard from Bill Owens is that there is an approach to deal effectively with it,” he said.

Despite its recently lobbying push in Washington, Huawei continues to come under pressure from lawmakers who claim that Huawei poses a threat to US national security.

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Jon Kyl, a Republican senator, and three other lawmakers said they were concerned that Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese equipment maker, were being funded by the Chinese government and could manipulate US networks.

Huawei has denied any links to the Chinese government. A decision is expected shortly by Sprint on the US contract.

小布什政府时期的前美国国防部高官戈登?英格兰德(Gordon England)已出任咨询公司Amerilink董事。Amerilink正与华为(Huawei)合作竞标一项重要的美国电信合约。

英格兰德是小布什政府时期美国国防部及国土安全部副部长。他在任期间的2008年，美国外国投资委员会(Cfius)以安全担忧为由，迫使华为放弃了对美国科技公司3COM的联合收购。

在接受英国《金融时报》采访时，英格兰德表示，他之所以加入Amerilink，是因为该公司的运营计划给他留下了“深刻印象”。Amerilink计划针对国外技术在美国电信网络中使用的安全性问题，为美国运营商提供独立审核。

英格兰德此次加入Amerilink，是受美军参谋长联席会议(Joint Chiefs of Staff)前副主席威廉?欧文斯(William Owens)邀请。欧文斯此前曾任华为顾问，现任Amerilink董事会主席。

但英格兰德表示，他不能绝对保证Amerilink的技术能力足以确保华为技术的安全性。

“我的个人观点是，这一问题其实并不复杂。是可以做到的。一切都取决于是否投入足够的资金，”英格兰德说。“我们的目标是让美国确信不存在安全隐患。”

Amerilink已与华为一起，向美国运营商Sprint Nextel提交了设备供应联合竞标书。根据拟议的交易，Amerilink将直接从华为购买设备，然后由这家美国公司及其美国员工（其中很多是前Sprint高管）进行检测，并整合至Sprint的网络中。据悉，Amerilink没有与其它任何公司合作。

英格兰德表示，他加入Amerilink的部分原因是，希望促进美中关系的发展。他还表示，尽管他了解美国政府内部对华为的安全担忧，但美国还面临着另外一个问题：大部分电信技术均是国外制造。而Amerilink能够向美国政府保证，硬件和软件在被整合至美国电信网络之前，已经得到充分检测。

“我认为，有受到认证的设备要比仅仅有设备好，”英格兰德表示。

在被问及在华为竞购3COM公司时，他个人是否认同美国国防部和其他政府机构的安全担忧时，他表示不愿详谈。

“我了解美国政府的政策和技术担忧，我也能理解。但欧文斯告诉我的东西，让我觉得他认为我们能够有效地处理这个问题，”他说。

尽管华为最近一直在努力游说美国政府，但该公司仍面临美国国会议员的压力，他们宣称华为将对美国国家安全造成威胁。

美国民主党参议员乔恩?基尔(Jon Kyl)与其他三名议员联名致信美国通信委员会(Federal Communications Commission)，称他们担心华为和另一家中国电信设备制造商中兴(ZTE)受到中国政府资助，可能会操纵美国网络。

华为否认与中国政府有任何联系。预计Sprint将在近期就这份美国电信合约做出决定。

译者/何黎