Japan ‘to stop buying from two Chinese tech giants’
Japan plans to ban government purchases of equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. to beef up its defenses against intelligence leaks and cyberattacks, sources told Reuters.
Chinese tech companies are under intense scrutiny from Washington and some prominent allies over ties to the Chinese government, driven by concerns they could be used by Beijing for spying.
A government ban in Japan will come after Huawei has been locked out of the US market and after Australia and New Zealand blocked it from building 5G networks. Huawei has repeatedly insisted Beijing has no influence over it.
The Yomiuri newspaper, which first reported the news of Japan’s planned ban earlier on Friday, said the government was expected to revise its internal rules on procurement as early as Monday.
The government does not plan to specifically name Huawei and ZTE in the revision, but will put in place measures aimed at strengthening security that apply to the companies, a person with direct knowledge and a person briefed on the matter said.
Japan’s chief government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, declined to comment. But he noted that the country has been in close communication with the US on a wide range of areas, including cybersecurity.
“Cybersecurity is becoming an important issue in Japan,” he told a regular news conference.
“We’ll take firm measures look- ing at it from a variety of perspectives.”
ZTE declined to comment. Huawei did not immediately comment.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang expressed “serious concern” about the reports.
The essence of China-Japan business and economic cooperation is mutual benefit and winwin, and both companies have legally operated in Japan for a long time, he told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
“We hope the Japanese side can provide a fair competition environment for Chinese companies operating in Japan and not do anything to harm bilateral cooperation and mutual trust.”
Huawei supplies some network equipment to private Japanese telcos NTT Docomo and KDDI Corp.