Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. is set to complete construction of an internet network in Papua New Guinea despite opposition from Australia, Japan and the U.S., after the South Pacific country dismissed concerns about cyberspying.
William Duma, the state investments minister for the small but resource-rich country, said PNG as a developing economy can’t walk away from a project that is more than half finished.
“Whatever views Australia or the U.S. might have in relation to cybersecurity, as far as Huawei or China are concerned, those are for the big boys to worry about,” Mr. Duma said Tuesday. “We in PNG have no enemies. If there is a proposal on the table for us from any country which will help us in terms of our telecommunications, we would not be that stupid to reject it.”
A Huawei spokesman declined to comment. A U.S. State Department spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
When completed, the 3,400-mile network of submarine cables will link the capital of Port Moresby with several other coastal towns. The network will also include an island on which the U.S. and Australia plan to expand a naval base—as strategic rivalries with China intensify in the Western Pacific.
Huawei has effectively been locked out of major U.S. telecommunications networks for years due to fears that its equipment could be used to spy on Americans, an assertion Huawei has long denied.
