Usually secret service chiefs are secretive people who are reluctant to speak publicly. However, this has been different for several months now among leading representatives of the secret service alliance "Five Eyes", which includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand in addition to the United States and Great Britain. They give interviews and give lectures and keep coming back to China and China its importance in the worldwide telecommunications industry. Her repeated concerns that manufacturers' products such as Huawei and ZTE are a blatant security risk, and that corporations could be of service to the Beijing government in espionage.

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The warnings are also reflected in political decisions - more and more governments ban Chinese telecom equipment suppliers from their mobile networks. In addition to the US and Australia, New Zealand has recently decided to exclude Huawei from a specific 5G project from Spark, "due to significant national security risks".

Behind the scenes, the United States in particular is vigorously trying to persuade other states to take this step - including Germany. With Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica all major network operators in this country Huawei technology in use. Also on the smartphone market, the Chinese are doing well in business: The best-selling device in Germany was last from Huawei. (Read the whole story at SPIEGEL + here)

"For such serious decisions as a ban you need evidence"

For the estimation of the potential risks, an authority based in Bonn, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), is responsible in this country. Its president Arne Schönbohm is unimpressed by the pressure of the Americans. "For such serious decisions as a ban you need evidence," says BSI President Arne Schönbohm, these were not before his authority.

Huawei opened a "safety lab" in Bonn in Schönbohm in November, where German customers can check, among other things, the source code of Huawei products. Similar facilities, according to the BSI president, he wished also from other manufacturers. His specialists not only relied on the company's own laboratory, but also took Huawei's parts around the world to investigate.

As early as March, according to SPIEGEL information, a Telekom board member at the BSI and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution asked whether the authorities shared the warnings from US security authorities against Chinese manufacturers. BSI President Schoenbohm responded on behalf of both authorities, to "currently no reliable findings" before. Should that change, they will actively approach German industry.

Huawei himself rejects all allegations "sharp and categorical". "We have never been asked to install a backdoor for espionage anywhere, there is no law that forces us to do it, we never did it and we never will," a spokesperson explains.

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