German defense minister takes hard-line stance on Huawei - Washington Examiner

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Chinese telecommunications giants including Huawei are headed for a major defeat in Germany under an update of the regulatory framework, according to Berlin’s top defense official.

“If the technology offered to us is not beyond reproach, it cannot be used," German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told the Sydney Morning Herald. "The political ramifications would simply be too grave.”

Those comments signal a significant victory for trans-Atlantic cooperation regarding China, following nearly two years of sustained warnings from U.S. lawmakers and officials that Chinese-made 5G wireless technology represents an intelligence crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has resisted an explicit ban of Huawei and other Chinese tech giants, but the defense chief said that the plan to have heightened scrutiny of the companies will have very predictable results.

“China is a country that understands very well the political dimension of IT networks and data flows,” she told the Australian media outlet. “I am sure our counterparts in Beijing understand that we Europeans can only operate technology we trust."

Australia banned Huawei and ZTE from its fifth-generation wireless technology infrastructure in 2018, citing the likelihood that they would "be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took up that refrain in 2019, warning European allies that any partnership with Huawei could jeopardize U.S. military cooperation with their countries.

“The tide is turning against Huawei as citizens around the world are waking up to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state,” Pompeo said in June. “The more countries, companies, and citizens ask whom they should trust with their most sensitive data, the more obvious the answer becomes: not the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state.”

That prognostication came just weeks before British officials announced that they would ban Huawei from the United Kingdom’s 5G networks despite rebuffing Pompeo’s appeals in January.

Chinese officials have accused Pompeo of lying about the tech company’s ties to Chinese intelligence services while threatening economic retaliation for countries that do follow the American lead.

Kramp-Karrenbauer’s statement suggests that Germany’s deep economic ties with China won’t protect Huawei despite the intermittent disputes between Merkel’s team and President Trump’s administration.

"What will be crucial, regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, is whether the West can be more unified in its dealings with Beijing," she said. "We have always had our tiffs across the Atlantic. That won’t change. What’s key is that we get the big stuff right. China is big stuff.”

November 03, 2020 at 05:23AM
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German defense minister takes hard-line stance on Huawei - Washington Examiner

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