Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the German government has imposed a ban on Chinese telecom equipment giants on national security grounds and will remove Huawei and ZTE components from Germany’s 5G network in two phases over the next five years. The German Interior Ministry negotiated an agreement with three domestic telecom providers operating 5G networks to protect Germany’s critical infrastructure from Chinese influence. This is Berlin’s latest move to reduce economic dependence on Beijing, a dependence which some fear could leave Germany vulnerable.
The three domestic German telecom operators are Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland. According to their agreement with the German government, these telecom operators will remove key components of Huawei and ZTE Technologies from the 5G core network by the end of 2026 and will replace all components of Huawei and ZTE Technologies in the 5G network access and transmission infrastructure by the end of 2029.
The German government has informed Beijing about the agreement and does not expect retaliation for the move. Other European countries including the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have already imposed bans on components from Huawei and ZTE. The United States began to impose restrictions on the use of Huawei equipment as early as 2019. Germany is considered to have lagged behind in implementing EU 5G network security measures.
The Chinese Embassy in Germany criticized Germany’s move on its official website, saying “the so-called cyber security risks are just an excuse.”
Source: Lianhe Zaobao, July 12, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20240712-4249314