On March 13, Global Times, a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper People’s Daily, reported in its Technology Section that the U.S. has told South Korea to stop using 5G mobile products from China’s No. 1 telecom equipment manufacturer, Huawei. The report’s title reads, “The U.S. Comes Up with Another Provocation, Urging South Korea to Stop Using Huawei’s 5G Products.”
It cited overseas reports, without listing any of their sources, that the Pentagon received a letter last December from three members of Congress to investigate the role Huawei plays in South Korea’s 5G networks and to assess the security risks that Huawei poses to American facilities and military forces because of its close relationship with the Chinese government.
Global Times pointed out that this letter indicated the Pentagon intended to stop Huawei from helping South Korea build a new wireless network, while South Korean wireless vendors apparently are unwilling to have any confrontation with Huawei as they speed up building the 5G network.
According to the report, Huawei has signed contracts with organizers of the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In addition, Huawei and LG U+ have worked closely together to use Huawei’s NB-IoT equipment on 4G networks. There have been no reports about Huawei products deployed by LG U+ having any security loopholes.
Global Times cited market watchers that Huawei’s products are reliable in quality and priced competitively, which raised U.S. concerns about its competitive advantage.
Shortly after the publication of this report, Global Times took it offline, but it can still be accessed at other online portals which carried the original report, including at China Finance Online, a financial services site based in the South-East Chinese city of Fuzhou.
Sources:
Global Times, March 13, 2017
http://tech.huanqiu.com/comm/2017-03/10301456.html
China Finance Online, March 13, 2017
http://news.cnfol.com/it/20170313/24423177.shtml