Amid strict 5G rules, EU stops short of Huawei ban
US urges UK to reconsider allowing Huawei limited role in 5G networks
LONDON/NEW DELHI: The US urged Britain on Wednesday to reconsider its decision to allow Huawei a limited role in 5G networks, upping pressure on its ally on a day when the European Union (EU) stopped short of banning equipment by the China-based firm for use by member states in the next generation of high-speed wireless communications, news agencies said.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson granted Huawei a limited role in Britain’s 5G mobile network on Tuesday, frustrating a global attempt by the US to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from the West’s next-generation communications over what it sees as concerns that it would pave the way for Chinese snooping.
“There is also a chance for the United Kingdom to relook at this as implementation moves forward,” US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told reporters as he flew to London, according to a pooled report. “We will make sure that when American information passes across a network we are confident that that network is a trusted one,” he said.
The developments coincided with news reports that the German government was in possession of evidence that Huawei had cooperated with Chinese intelligence, a claim the telecoms company denied on Wednesday.
“Huawei Technologies has never, and will never, do anything to compromise the security of networks and data of its customers,” the Chinese company said in response to the report in the Handelsblatt business daily, Reuters reported.
Huawei has been allowed to participate in 5G trials in India as well, and officials in Union government said the position to allow the company to participate has not changed.
The Handelsblatt report cited a confidential foreign ministry document that intelligence shared by US officials represented a “smoking gun” that meant Chinese companies were unsafe partners for building nextgeneration 5G mobile networks.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and her conservative ruling party are split on whether Huawei’s equipment poses a security threat to Europe’s largest economy, where the three mobile network operators are all customers of the Chinese
firm.
The European Union’s executive commission on Wednesday outlined a set of strategic and technical measures aimed at reducing cybersecurity risks from fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile networks.
The recommendations include blocking high-risk equipment suppliers from “critical and sensitive” parts of the network, including the core, which keeps track of data and authenticates smartphones on the network.
No companies were mentioned by name but the term “high risk” supplier was an obvious reference to Huawei, the world’s top maker of networking gear such as switches and antennas.
The US has been lobbying
European allies to ban Huawei, over concerns it could be compelled to help with electronic eavesdropping after Beijing enacted a 2017 national intelligence law.
US officials have repeatedly warned they would have to reconsider intelligence sharing with allies that use Huawei. The company has denied the allegations.
The measures are similar to those taken a day earlier by Britain, which also opted not to introduce an outright ban on Huawei, instead prohibiting it from supplying equipment used in the core, while limiting its role supplying antennas and base stations for the less sensitive “radio access network.”