Zhao Houlin is head of the UN’s telecoms company, an impartial worldwide arbiter that units among the guidelines shaping the trendy expertise business. However that doesn’t cease him from letting his patriotism burst into the open.
A former authorities official in China, Mr Zhao has repeatedly lionised the Belt and Highway Initiative, the pet challenge of Chinese language president Xi Jinping to put money into abroad infrastructure. He has additionally defended Huawei, the controversial Chinese language telecoms champion, towards US accusations that its gear can be utilized for espionage.
“These preoccupations with Huawei gear, so far there isn’t a proof up to now,” Mr Zhao, who’s secretary-general of the Worldwide Telecommunication Union, instructed reporters in Geneva final yr. “I might encourage Huawei to be given equal alternatives to bid for enterprise.”
However it’s in his unabashed help for Chinese language expertise requirements that Mr Zhao’s loyalty to Beijing is most hanging. Though he was sworn into his ITU function with a pledge to behave “with the curiosity of the union solely in view” whereas avoiding affect from anyone nation, he commonly celebrates China’s rising presence within the telecoms and web industries.
“These days within the dialogue of related ITU requirements, China’s technical energy is already within the first echelon and the worldwide neighborhood expects China to play a higher function within the UN system,” Mr Zhao was quoted by the Individuals’s Each day, an official Chinese language newspaper, as saying final week. In different statements carried by the Chinese language media he has praised the function of the nation’s telecoms corporations in setting new business requirements.