Via the ABC:
British Prime Minister Theresa May has fired her defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, saying an investigation suggested he was to blame for leaking discussions about Chinese telecoms company Huawei from her National Security Council.
An investigation was launched last week after the Daily Telegraph first reported that the security council, which meets in private, had agreed to let Huawei participate in some aspects of Britain’s new 5G wireless communications network.
The government insists no decision has been made about that.
The dramatic arrest in Canada of Huawei’s chief financial officer for possible extradition to the US shocked many. But what exactly is Huawei and why does it seem like it’s continually being targeted by foreign governments?
Downing St said Ms May has “lost confidence” in Mr Williamson.
Mr Williamson has denied he had any role in the leak of information regarding Huawei.
“I am confident that a thorough and formal inquiry would have vindicated my position,” Mr Williamson wrote in a letter to Ms May, which he published on Twitter.
Ms May wrote to Mr Williamson in a letter that there is “compelling evidence suggesting your responsibility for the unauthorised disclosure.”
“No other, credible version of events to explain this leak has been identified,” the letter read.
Penny Mordaunt, former minister for international development, has now been named as defence secretary in place of Mr Williamson.
Talk about prescient. Fast forward a decade when defence minister Andrew Hastie or Richard Marles is rolled by Cabinet on a proposal to fully integrate the Melbourne Port with Chinese state owned enterprises (SOE). Either one is forced by patriotic obligation to leak the divisive decision to the press and is fired for it.
A year later, China’s new aircraft carrier, its twelfth, sails in for a friendly visit to the Melbourne port to sign up a swag of new Belt and Road contracts. Plush Chinese helicopters fly Aussie VIPs and celebrities to an uber-exclusive party on the decks for the lavish ceremony. Entertainment includes a five per side mini-AFL match played right across the Shenyang catapult. The Chinese sailors cheer and gasp as the physical prowess of the pale barbarians.
The centerpiece deal is the purchase by the Victorian Government of new Huatei technology, a recently privatised SOE. The Huatei facial recognition system is to be rolled out across Melbourne for the surveillance of, and early intervention against, “anti-immigration right wing extremists”.
It’s for “the good of the people” announces Manchurian Dan in the state-owned New Age newspaper.
The AFL approves wholeheartedly.
