ZTE | Germany | Huawei
According to the Hong Kong Asia Times website on June 20th, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton hopes that Germany and other European countries will stop delaying time and remove Chinese devices from their 5G telecommunications networks as soon as possible. In response, the European telecommunications industry and Huawei are fighting back.
According to reports, Breton cited the EU's guidelines for member states to evaluate "high-risk suppliers" at a press conference on June 15th, stating: "So far, only 10 countries have restricted or excluded high-risk suppliers. This is too slow, and this approach poses a significant safety risk, exposing the EU's collective security to danger."
Deutsche Telekom quickly refuted claims that the mobile network built by Huawei in China may have been remotely modified, damaged, or data stolen. In a statement sent to the German "Magic Image" technology website on June 16th, a spokesperson for the German telecommunications operator stated: "Real time systems that have not undergone comprehensive functional and security testing cannot introduce any updates."
According to media reports, Stefan Broszio, an executive of Deutsche Telekom, said: "These network management systems are located in a highly secure network, which is completely separated from the Internet and the company's office communication network. Only a few employees who have undergone strict security review have the right to access the network. It is impossible for manufacturers to launch remote attacks."
At the same time, Austrian Chief Telecommunications Regulatory Officer Klaus Steinmore told the Austrian news agency that he "did not see any danger from Huawei" and also said "I have not heard of any cases" of the problem.
Nevertheless, the European Commission still plans to remove Huawei and ZTE equipment from its offices and recommends that the European Parliament and Council do the same. But it has no authority to order individual governments to exclude specific suppliers from telecommunications infrastructure.
On June 19th, the German Business Daily reported that the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, currently controlled by the pro American Green Party, advocates a tough policy towards Chinese telecommunications companies.
The German Ministry of the Interior, led by the Social Democratic Party in the German coalition government, has not yet made a statement. The German Business Daily added that "a spokesperson for the Minister of the Interior did not specify how much the position of the European Commission on Huawei and ZTE may play in German policy.".
Under pressure from Washington, the German telecommunications regulatory agency began evaluating the security of the systems built by Huawei a few years ago. The Ministry of the Interior said that the evaluation is still "in progress".
According to reports, removing 5G devices from China would be expensive and highly disruptive for mobile telecommunications services in Europe, with an estimated total cost of billions of euros.
Huawei is actively participating in the Horizon Europe program and other EU research projects. According to reports, these projects involve various technologies ranging from artificial intelligence to autonomous driving, high-performance computing, and quantum sensing.
Huawei has denied the allegations made by the European Commission. The Shenzhen based company recently released a press release stating that "publicly naming an entity as a 'high-risk supplier' without legal basis is a violation of free trade principles."
Huawei invites customers and testing agencies to the Huawei Network Security Transparency Center located in Brussels to conduct fair, objective, and independent security testing and verification in accordance with industry recognized network security standards and best practices.
