Huawei 5G: European countries playing 'politics' with network bans, Chinese company says
The decision by some EU countries to ban Huawei from supplying 5G infrastructure is based on "political motivation", the Chinese company has said, as it defended its legacy and ongoing investments in the region.
Speaking exclusively to Euronews Next Abraham Liu, Huawei’s
chief representative to the EU, said “when you talk about certain, very few
countries who have made a different kind of decision based on their political
motivation, I think that's politics”.
But he added that the multinational company was nevertheless
working to be a part of Europe’s digital future by complying with European
regulation and by collaborating with partners in the region.
A legacy in Europe
Huawei has been forced to rethink its global strategy after
former US President Donald Trump blacklisted the company over concerns it was
using equipment to spy on the American government. Unfortunately for Huawei, a
significant number of European governments followed the United States' lead.
Liu, who manages the relationship between Huawei and European
institutions, did not directly say why some countries have banned the 5G
infrastructure provider, but defended Huawei by emphasising the company’s
long-standing footprint in Europe.
“(We have) research centres in over 12 countries, and we
also have established quite a broad collaboration relationship with over 150
universities, and this kind of cooperation has been conducted under the rules
of law, you know, in European rules of law”, Liu told Euronews Next.
Europe’s mixed approach
The European Commission has recommended a “common EU
approach” and set up a 5G toolbox to protect critical infrastructure against
security threats, leaving procurement decisions up to member states. As with
many decisions within the bloc, responses have varied, state by state.
Sweden has excluded Huawei’s 5G equipment altogether, a
decision Huawei unsuccessfully tried to overturn earlier this year. The company
says it is “accessing legal options” in response to the country’s decision.
Eastern European countries including Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic,
Latvia and Estonia have also taken a hardline approach.
However, larger EU member states have taken what appears to
be a more nuanced view. While France has allowed the controversial company to
supply 5G equipment, it does so under operating restrictions that include
security agency powers to veto infrastructure decisions, if necessary.
Europe’s largest economy Germany has faced pressure from
western allies to take a tougher stance on Huawei. In an attempt to balance
calls for a hardened approach with the need to maintain trading ties with
Beijing, the German government approved an information security law in April
this year that tightens governance and infrastructure reporting requirements
with the aim of improving information security.
"The use of critical components can be denied if the
supplier is not trustworthy," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told German
federal lawmakers in April this year.
Meanwhile in the UK, the government has banned Huawei from
the country’s 5G infrastructure plans despite ongoing commitments by the
Chinese firm to participate in security and infrastructure audits to help
increase confidence.
A report from the UK's Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation
Centre (HCSEC) released last week said that while “sustained progress” had been
made by Huawei to fix past problems, there was “no overall improvement over the
course of 2020 to meet the product software engineering and cyber security
quality”.
A European operator
As more European governments take a tougher stance on China
as a result of its the treatment of the Uyghur people and crackdown on
pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, Huawei is positioning itself as an
international company and a “European operator” as a way to fight back against
negative perceptions.
Huawei said it was able to support Europe's green deal goals
because the company’s digital infrastructure is energy efficient.
“When you talk about the 5G base station, ours is more
energy efficient. And if you consider there are going to be hundreds of
thousands of base stations, that means big things for the future sites to be
greener,” Liu said.
Liu emphasised that Huawei was working to meet European
expectations, saying the EU had “all the specification or requirements in
different aspects, from supply chain to the research, to the human resources to
the health care. You know, all these requirements from the EU level has been
integrated into the tender documents of the operator and to where we were 15
years ago”.
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