Military ties to local telecoms investors…. This presents ominous implications – Dr. Roopnaraine

By Gary Eleazar

The fact that the two Chinese companies that are heavily investing in Guyana’s telecommunications industry both share links with the Chinese military namely the Peoples Liberation Army, is a very ominous revelation. This is according to A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Parliamentarian Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, who was at the time responding to reports that the Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group, which has bought 20 per cent of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) and Huawei Technologies Ltd which is installing the Government’s LTE state-of-the-art telecommunication network, both have links to the Peoples Liberation Army.

 Moments before the APNU frontbencher delivered his presentation to the 2012 Budget debates, he told this publication that in light of the revelation, the coalition of parties will be placing the issue under greater scrutiny. Datang and Huawei had raised eyebrows in October, 2011 when a US Pentagon report fingered both companies as being linked to the Chinese Military as well as a Chinese Government ‘Espionage’ Ministry.

 See Washington Times report http://www.washingtontimes.com...y-ministry/?page=all

 According to a 2011 Washington Times Publication, “A U.S. intelligence report for the first time links China’s largest telecommunications company (Huawei Technologies Ltd.) to Beijing’s KGB-like intelligence service and says the company recently received nearly a quarter-billion dollars from the Chinese government.” At the time of the report the Huawei Technologies Ltd was attempting to break into the US market and had been blocked on three previous occasions. The revelation that the two Chinese companies are linked to the PLA, coupled with the fact that there has been a deafening silence on Guyana’s own Intelligence Agency, Dr Roopnaraine said, “has brought to mind some fairly ominous implications.” He said that greater attention must be paid to the due diligence of the companies, “and to see to what extent they represent in any way a threat to Guyana’s security and sovereignty.

 We should check it out.” Dr. Roopnaraine downplayed any concerns of an ideological tandem with the Guyanese politicians in the seat of power, many of whom are Russian-trained with the Chinese Communist practices. “It has to do less with any affinity to their Communist ideology and more to do with the fact that we are like a lot of developing countries now, essentially the victims of a new kind of Chinese imperialism. We are seeing it in Africa, we are seeing it in Latin America, and we are certainly seeing it in Guyana.

As it relates to Huawei Technologies Ltd which the government has engaged to undertake the establishment of an LTE network and is currently expending more than US$40M, Britain’s domestic intelligence service, MI-5 had warned that equipment installed by Huawei in British Telecom’s networks could be used to disrupt critical services like power and transportation.”