Connecting without Huawei

The Czech Republic routinely ranks in the 30-40 range in international surveys. Most recently, it was No. 38 in Transparency Int.'s corruption-perception index. Such surveys are almost invariably Western-based, but the CR also shows up in about the same range in Huawei's annual Global Connectivity Index. The CR slipped three places in the 2018 rankings but was still in a respectable 29th out of 79. The CR has an "outstanding set of scores in broadband," according to Huawei, but "could expand the scenarios for cloud usage." The country is reported to have one of the lowest shares of e-government users in the EU, Huawei said, and "the low use of online public services reflects deficiencies in the supply of such services." The survey is a fine example of how China has learned the art of soft power; Huawei is careful not to use it to engage in any hard-selling. How will the company react, though, when its new survey comes out in a few months? With two Chinese suppliers of technology mostly sidelined by NÚKIB, Huawei will no doubt be tempted to sharply downgrade the CR's connectivity potential.