In Germany, Germany plans to let Huawei enter

The preliminary decision made by a small group of concerned ministries two weeks ago is to be discussed by conservative chancellor Angela Merkel's leaders at a meeting on Tuesday night. Even if it is confirmed, she could still face opposition in her cabinet or parliament, according to a small group of senior officials, diplomats and lawmakers who would prefer to ban Huawei for strategic and security reasons.

The government is reviewing the country's telecom laws – regardless of Huawei's concerns – that would impose tougher security requirements on vendors of telecommunications equipment, including a promise not to spy on them.

A recent survey conducted by the German cybersecurity agency with the help of the United States and other allies has not shown that Chinese society could use its equipment to siphon data illegally, according to officials of the agency and other government officials.

A head of the Federal Office of Information Security, called BSI, and two cybersecurity experts from the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs said that the investigation in Germany and other allies among the allies had revealed no indication of wrongdoing on the part of Huawei.

One minister defended the government's preference not to upset Beijing on this and other points, stating, "I do not fear China."

The strategy of

Deutsche Telekom
AG

Germany's former telephone monopoly and its main mobile phone and Internet operator, not investing heavily in fiber optic connections, means Germany is lagging behind the rest of Europe – and most of Asia – in terms of Internet speed.

This makes the rapid deployment of 5G technology necessary to enable the country to keep pace and offer a range of new services, such as autonomous vehicles and high-resolution video streams. Representatives of German industry also support a rapid deployment, fearing in part that China may retaliate by cutting German companies from the Chinese market.

"We missed the boat here in Germany when it comes to high speed internet. We need the fast internet, we need it quickly, and we need it cheaply, "said a senior government official involved in the case.

Huawei is not only the market leader in the network infrastructure components needed to build 5G networks, but also offers lower prices than its competitors, according to a German source in the government's decision not to put it away.

Another official said that conversations with the United States and British services thought they had a better idea of ​​the potential vulnerabilities embedded in Huawei's equipment had not been conclusive.

In an attempt to dispel these concerns, Deutsche Telekom has called on the government to make infrastructure sellers subject to security breaches, the company said.

A spokesman for Deutsche Telekom said the company had built a large fiber network in Germany and it was difficult to compare fiber networks from other countries with Germany's given the decentralized demographics of Germany. his country.

The pressure for a rapid deployment of 5G is not just coming from Deutsche Telekom or large German companies.

The global group of GSMA mobile network operators said last week that "limiting or blocking the deployment of 5G or requiring modifications to existing 4G infrastructure, would risk leaving European consumers and businesses to the train."

Huawei is already cooperating closely with the German government. Last fall, the company opened a security lab near BSI headquarters in Bonn, where government officials can view the company's products and source codes. A spokesman for Huawei said the company backed more stringent telecommunications security rules and would sign a non-spying agreement.

This could put Huawei in contradiction with Chinese law. A Chinese law of 2017 stipulates that all Chinese companies must cooperate with the country's intelligence services at the request of the latter, which Vice President Mike Pence warned in a speech delivered last weekend in Germany. .

Addressing the same event, Yang Jiechi, a Chinese foreign affairs official, dismissed the charges and said Huawei was cooperating with European companies.

"Chinese law does not require companies to install backdoors … or spies," Jiechi said.

A spokesman for Huawei said that the company did not spy on foreign countries and that Chinese law did not oblige it to do so.

Berlin's preference to give the Chinese seller access has caused some distance among a small group of politicians and officials who believe that the government is minimizing security risks due to short-term economic considerations.

The group is also concerned about the opening of another dispute with the Trump administration, which adds to a list of hot spots ranging from trade to the Iranian nuclear deal and to at Nord Stream 2, a German-Russian gas pipeline project that Washington is determined to stop.

US Ambassador to Germany Richard A. Grenell said German decision-makers should consider that China has collected and exploited unparalleled data.

"They rely on a set of legal tools and other mechanisms to control and encourage companies to cooperate with Chinese intelligence and security services. This applies to both state-owned and so-called private enterprises, "said Mr. Grenell, President Trump's confidant. "We continue to urge allies and partners to take into account such risks and to exercise the same vigilance to ensure their own safety."

Huawei's founder, former Chinese Army engineer Ren Zhengfei, on Monday adopted a more combative stance against the United States in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.

"It's impossible for the United States to crush us," he said. "The world can not leave us because we are more advanced. Even if they persuade more countries not to use us temporarily, we can always reduce things a little bit. "

"If the lights go out in the west, it will still shine," he added. "And if the north darkens, there is always the south. America does not represent the world. America only represents one part of the world. "

Write to Bojan Pancevski to [email protected] and Sara Germano to [email protected]