Huawei and ZTE: EU Commission sees Chinese manufacturers as a security risk

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Huawei advertising in Beijing

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The European Commission has identified Chinese telecoms companies Huawei and ZTE as posing a risk to EU security. Both companies pose "in fact significantly higher risks" than other providers of 5G network services, the Commission said in Brussels. According to its own statements, the authority will therefore no longer use the services of the two companies in the future.

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EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton also called on the 27 EU states and telecommunications companies to refrain from using equipment from the two manufacturers in their own networks. "We cannot afford to perpetuate dependencies that can be used as weapons against our common interests," Breton told reporters. This would be "too great a risk to our common security," he added.

The EU is also said to be considering binding requirements to exclude Chinese companies – out of concern that member states have so far been too inactive. Germany is also considered a latecomer in this respect. The Federal Ministry of the Interior is currently examining how many Huawei components telecom companies have installed in the German 5G mobile network.

dab/AFP/Reuters