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Germany Weighs Banning Huawei From 5G Amid Heightened Scrutiny
Representative Image (David Becker/Getty Images)
Amidst pressure from United States on its allies to ban Huawei products from their infrastructure over security concerns, Germany is considering ways in which it can prevent the Chinese tech firm’s equipment from being used in the country’s 5G network infrastructure, reports Wall Street Journal.
In order to make it impossible for German telecom operators to use Huawei equipment, Berlin was considering tightening existing security requirements for the the construction of next-generation 5G mobile communication networks in the country, a government official was cited in the report as saying.
With its European headquarters in the German city of Düsseldorf, Germany is one of the most important foreign markets for Huawei. Also, Germany is the biggest economy in the region of Europe, Middle East and Africa, from where Huawei gets the largest percentage of its revenue outside China. The Chinese tech giant got 27 per cent of its $92.6 billion in revenue from that region.
The move marks a shift in the course of the German government. US government has been, for months, pressuring its allies to ban Huawei products from their infrastructure for fear they could make it easier for the Chinese government to spy on communications. However, German officials were so far skeptical about US concerns citing lack of evidence as reason.
As per the report, the change of course comes days after authorities in Poland arrested a former senior Polish security official and a Huawei sales director and charged them with spying for China.
“We are conducting a thorough interdepartmental analysis of how we could amend the security requirements in a way that would affect Huawei,” the official was quoted in the report as saying.
“There are serious concerns about the building of a 5G infrastructure including warnings about back doors in hardware components, data flows…this would affect everything from communication to self-driving cars.” he added.
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