Foreign news

How the U.S.-Danish scandal reveals the hypocrisy of the ‘Clean Network’

Published

5 years ago

November 18, 2020

Editor’s note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the U.S. The article reflects the author’s opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

This week Denmark’s Public Broadcaster, the DR, published a series of revelations that the United States National Security Agency (NSA) coordinated with the country’s intelligence services to spy on Denmark’s government itself, including their financial and foreign ministries, as well as a number of European defense firms, in order to obtain information on the country’s fighter acquisition program and subsequently gain an advantage in selling the country Lockheed Martin F-35s instead of them purchasing Eurofighters.

The report states that the U.S. was able to tap into the country’s telecommunications networks via fiber optic cables to do so.

This is a staggering irony and mammoth scale hypocrisy from the country who preaches to others “the clean network” fears of espionage and reveals in tandem, what the American scheme to exclude Huawei is in fact really all about: the uncontested supremacy of U.S. global surveillance programs which are subsequently used to promote the interests of the military-industrial complex.

This is not a new or standalone revelation, but part of a longstanding trend by Washington which has persistently utilized such activities for commercial gain and intellectual property theft.

The anti-Huawei campaign is thus little more than a deflection for what the U.S. itself does, and they didn’t need 5G to do so.

Over the past two years, the U.S. has waged a phenomenally aggressive campaign to oust Huawei from the next-generation telecommunications networks of western countries. In doing so, it has been claimed that the Chinese company has ties to the government which subsequently allows those networks to be used for espionage.

Despite the fact that evidence of these allegations is scant, and has never been proven beyond “guilt by association” arguments, the Western mainstream media has largely taken this narrative at face value and has seldom scrutinized it.

This has created a false binary assumption that China is the “espionage threat” and the U.S. as an allied country, would never abuse technology for malign purposes.

This week’s revelations tell a different story. Here is an out in the open example as to how the United States has abused its intelligence-sharing agreements with other countries, in order to undermine that country itself for its commercial gain.

Chief to the benefactors was the military-industrial complex, which might be noted have funded a number of think tanks espousing anti-Huawei propaganda, and the losers?

Europe’s own defense industry. This is not the first time U.S. surveillance has done this.

In 1994, the U.S. intelligence sabotaged a $6-billion-deal between European firm Airbus and Saudi Arabia, so that Boeing could win it instead, and in the same year, also undermined the French company Thompson-Alcatel in Brazil so that a $1.3 billion contract could be given to Raytheon. Such agreements have also been used to steal intellectual property from the German industry.

This should reveal the superficiality of the anti-Huawei argument. This isn’t about security as much as it is about American supremacy and uncontested monopoly, in both the strategic and corporate spheres.

The Denmark story shows how the United States is cooperating with the intelligence agencies of allied countries in order to advance US interests, even acting against that country itself, and to do so requires that they “politically control” or have “access” to the telecommunications networks in a preferential way, with the U.S having also infiltrated encryption firms in the west as the Washington Post revealed in February.

Huawei however, poses a challenge on the political premise that they do not control it, and therefore such equipment is harder to be co-opted for espionage.

In this case, what might be known as “the clean network” is a snake oil sham being espoused by the United States which glosses over the inconvenient reality that the data of Europeans is not safe or private with Washington as a “good ally” as Pompeo misleadingly presents it, but that they are actively utilizing their monopoly over intelligence and pacts with respective countries to undermine European interests on behest of the military-industrial complex.

Huawei is not the threat and it never was, this is why such countries did not in fact take the American arguments seriously until they were coerced into doing so, the United Kingdom being the most obvious example. Rather, it stands in the way of uncontested American monopoly and profit.

Thus there is no “clean network”, only American interests and double standards. What it accuses a Chinese firm of groundlessly doing, is in fact a reflection of what itself has been doing all along.

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Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Published

1 month ago

September 28, 2025

The Gleamer

African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

The discussions took center stage at the Big Push Against Malaria: Harnessing Africa’s Role high-level political engagement in Abuja, where Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda showcased new homegrown financing strategies aimed at reducing dependence on dwindling donor support.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases. In 2023, the world recorded 263 million cases and nearly 600,000 deaths, with 94% of cases and 95% of deaths occurring in Africa. Nigeria alone accounted for 26.6% of global cases and 31% of deaths, according to the World Malaria Report 2024. Children under five remain the most vulnerable, making up 76% of deaths.

Despite progress — with Nigeria cutting malaria deaths by more than half since 2000 through insecticide-treated nets, preventive treatments, and the rollout of the new R21 malaria vaccine — leaders warned that global targets are off-track. The World Health Organization’s technical strategy for malaria (2016–2030) has stalled since 2017, with Africa unlikely to meet its 2025 and 2030 milestones without urgent action.

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

According to the House Chair on ATM, Hon. Linda Ogar, a bill is underway to restructure the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) into a multi-disease agency that will address HIV, TB, and malaria.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

“These resources will provide sustainable funding to strengthen health systems and accelerate malaria elimination,” Ogar said, stressing that Africa must stop relying solely on foreign donors. “We cannot continue to take two steps forward and five steps backward. Africa must begin to show the world that we are ready to solve our problems ourselves.”

Similar models are already being piloted in Ghana and Uganda, where levies on mobile money and telecoms are being redirected to finance health interventions. The Abuja meeting urged other African countries to adopt this approach as part of a continental framework for sustainable financing.

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, emphasized that while malaria is preventable and treatable, it still kills hundreds of thousands yearly due to funding shortfalls, climate change, insecticide resistance, and humanitarian crises.

“To truly defeat this disease, we must rethink, join forces, and mount a concerted ‘Big Push’. Funding gaps remain a major obstacle, and innovative domestic financing is the way forward,” Salako declared.

From the civil society front, grassroots representatives pledged to act as “foot soldiers”, demanding that communities have a seat at the decision-making table. The World Health Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation, and other partners reaffirmed support but stressed the need for stronger political will and local ownership.

Private Sector and Global Support

Representing billionaire philanthropist Aliko Dangote, the Nigeria Malaria Council reiterated that private sector investment must complement government financing. Meanwhile, the Global Fund confirmed it has invested nearly $2 billion in Nigeria’s malaria response and committed an additional $500 million for 2024–2026, including support for local production of malaria drugs.

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Abuja, Nigeria – African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Private Sector and Global Support

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

The Big Push: From Talk to Action

Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda are pioneering a shift from donor dependence to domestic revenue mobilization via tobacco, alcohol, and telecom taxes — a model hailed as central to financing Africa’s health futures and ending malaria by 2030
Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

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