European Commission Vice-President for the Single Digital Market Andrus Ansip is urging EU member states to consider the risk of partnering with Chinese companies like Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
In an interview, Ansip said that China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 has increased the risk in dealing with Chinese companies in Europe. The law mandates any organization and citizen to support and assist national intelligence agencies in their investigations and to keep information related to such investigations.
“When it’s written in the law, then we have to understand those risks they are higher. We cannot be naive anymore,” Ansip said, adding that Chinese companies are “under suspicion” as a result of the legislation.
He said he was referring to all Chinese companies — not just Huawei.
Asked whether European countries should restrict partnerships with Huawei, Ansip said that he would not give such recommendations, but said: “I would like to ask all the governments, all the responsible people, to deal with the risk assessment in a very serious way.”
While the risks are higher after China passed the law, it does not necessarily mean that there should be a definitive break in Europe with Chinese companies or products, Ansip said.
Huawei said it commissioned a legal opinion to analyze the consequences of the law.
The opinion said that the law does not require it to cooperate with state intelligence if it would contradict the legitimate rights and interests of individuals and organizations, a spokesman said.
In a statement, the Chinese Mission to the EU said that it has noted that some people “in certain countries” have said that Chinese high-tech companies might pose threats to national security, “but none of them have yet to produce any convincing evidence on how their national security has been affected.”
The mission added that it was “opposed to the relevant parties’ one-sided interpretation of Chinese laws” and that such rules “never give any institution the mandate to force companies to build ‘mandatory back doors.’ Such actions have never happened.”
Romanian Minister of Communications and Information Society Alexandru Petrescu said in an interview that singling out countries or suppliers would not better defend the union from cyberthreats.
Romania holds the EU’s rotating presidency from last month to June, during which time it acts as a neutral broker to drive forward negotiations on EU legislation and other matters.
“The threats will always be there,” Petrescu said. “It’s about us getting better in what we do in terms of securing the data of European citizens and European businesses.”
Huawei has been pitching heavily to sell its equipment to European telecoms.
On Thursday, it said that it had shipped more than 25,000 5G base stations worldwide.
Huawei carrier business group CEO Ding Yun (丁耘) said that 18 out of Huawei’s 30 contracts to date have come from Europe.
Fifth-generation networks will be key in underpinning future technologies such as autonomous cars and AI-assisted services.
Some countries have sought to limit the company’s influence over their future networks.
The US is urging its allies to avoid using Huawei’s equipment for fear that it can be used in spying, allegations that the company has repeatedly denied.
Last month, Poland arrested one of the company’s local executives, accusing him along and a local former security agent of conducting espionage against the country.
Australia and New Zealand have banned Huawei equipment from their planned 5G networks of carriers, and other countries, including Germany, are considering restricting Huawei’s role in their future telecom infrastructure.
In the UK, Vodafone Group PLC on Friday said that it has suspended purchases of equipment from Huawei for the core of its wireless networks.
When asked whether decisions by European member states to limit Huawei’s role could hinder the development of 5G in Europe, Ansip said that there are other suppliers of such network equipment, such as Ericsson AB and Nokia Oyj.
However, Huawei is very advanced in the field, he said.
“Exactly because of this — risk assessment is needed,” Ansip said.
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