Germany’s IT watchdog has expressed skepticism about calls for a boycott of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為), saying that it has seen no evidence that the firm could use its equipment to spy for Beijing, news weekly Der Spiegel reported on Friday.
“For such serious decisions like a ban, you need proof,” Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) president Arne Schoenbohm, told Der Spiegel, adding that his agency had no such evidence.
Huawei has faced increasing scrutiny over its alleged links to Chinese intelligence services, prompting countries such as the US, Australia and Japan to block it from building their next-generation, super-fast 5G Internet networks.
The US has put pressure on Germany to follow suit, Der Spiegel said.
Schoenbohm said that BSI experts had examined Huawei products and components from around the world.
They had also visited Huawei’s newly opened lab in Bonn, where German clients can inspect the firm’s cybersecurity measures and the software behind its products.
All three of Germany’s main mobile network operators use infrastructure provided by Huawei, Der Spiegel said.
The Chinese firm is also the brand behind some of Germany’s most popular mobile phones.
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