Not yet in operation, 5G is already the subject of a trade war. After the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe are worried about the risks of spying on China, with the arrival of Huawei antennas. Tension is mounting between Beijing and Western countries.
The pandemic has not removed the angry subjects between Europe and China. On the contrary: pressure is mounting against Huawei over 5G and the risks of Chinese espionage.
Yes, distrust of the Chinese group continues to grow in Western countries. According to the British press, the United Kingdom is building a coalition of ten democratic countries to develop an alternative to Huawei 5G.
The approach is similar to that of the United States, which for months has been doing everything to convince their allies not to let the Chinese group infiltrate 5G infrastructure. Washington sees it as a Trojan horse in the service of the Communist regime in Beijing. The UK could even go a step further by uninstalling Huawei antennas from its mobile networks in the next three years.
This distrust is also fueled by China's attitude towards Hong Kong.
It is clear: Beijing's decision to impose its security law on Hong Kong confirms the worst fears of the West. The Chinese regime is getting tougher, judges those who do not share its line as dissidents or even terrorists. Network monitoring is an obsession. In Hong Kong, it is feared that the Internet will soon be censored as in the rest of China.
In short, Western countries have even more reason to be wary. The Covid-19 crisis also demonstrated how critical the security of telecommunications networks is to the very functioning of our economies. Europe rightly sees this as an issue of sovereignty. The presence of Huawei at the heart of networks has never aroused so much distrust.