Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is considering banning Huawei Technologies Co (華為) from supplying components to the nation’s upcoming 5G network because he sees China as a global threat to data privacy and sovereignty, a senior member of his Cabinet said.
While a decision has not been made yet and would take into consideration the views of others in the Cabinet, the remarks are evidence of Bolsonaro’s continued suspicion of Brazil’s largest trading partner.
Caught between Washington and Beijing, Brazilian officials have so far refrained from saying whether they would give in to US requests to ban Huawei.
Still, the Cabinet member dismissed the possibility of Chinese retaliation, saying that Beijing relies on Brazilian imports to feed its population. Other countries which have banned Huawei have not suffered major consequences, the person added, requesting anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Chinese Ambassador to Brazil Yang Wanming (楊萬明) on Wednesday last week said that the decision on Huawei would help define the broader relationship between the two emerging market giants.
“What’s at stake is whether a country can set up market rules based on openness, impartiality and non-discrimination,” he said.
Bolsonaro’s office deferred the request for comment on the remarks to the Brazilian Ministry of Communications, which said that the decision is a matter of national security involving many national stakeholders. Leaders of all countries involved are discussing the subject, it added, without elaborating.
China was the destination of 40 percent of Brazilian exports in the first half of the year, Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture data showed.
Sales to China, mostly soybeans, generated more revenue than those to the US, Latin America, Europe and Africa combined.
Relations with Beijing have been tense since Bolsonaro took office last year, after heavily criticizing China during his presidential campaign. A close ally of US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro warmed up to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to Asia last year.
However, just a few months ago, Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ernesto Araujo implicitly censured China, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic had revived “the communist nightmare.”
Other officials have expressed more pragmatic views. Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao has advocated for an open bidding process to pick the builders of the 5G network.
Brazil plans to select those firms in May next year, after the pandemic delayed the process initially scheduled for this year, Brazilian Minister of Communications Fabio Faria said, adding that the delay this would allow the government to observe global developments before making a decision.
UNWANTED ATTENTION: In the past two months, the automaker has made headlines, with a Chinese military ban of its vehicles and a protest at an expo Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, facing scrutiny in China over safety and customer service complaints, is boosting its engagement with regulators and beefing up its government relations team, industry sources said. Tesla’s change of strategy leading to more behind-the-scenes interaction with policymakers in Beijing compared with relatively little previously shows the seriousness with which the US automaker views the setbacks in its second-biggest market. TALKING SHOP It also comes at a time when China is trying to regulate large and powerful private companies, especially in the technology sector, on concerns about their market dominance. As they do elsewhere, regulators in China, the world’s biggest
Dell Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Boomi cloud business to private equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG in a cash deal valued at US$4 billion, as part of efforts by chief executive officer Michael Dell to trim down the PC maker. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year, the companies said in a statement on Sunday without providing additional details of the terms. Dow Jones had earlier reported that the companies were near a deal. Boomi specializes in integrating different cloud platforms for companies and has more than 15,000 customers. Dell agreed to acquire the company for
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) start-up Nio Inc (蔚來) reported a narrower first-quarter loss, while warning that a global chip shortage would keep a lid on deliveries. The Shanghai-based company posted a net loss of 451 million yuan (US$68.8 million) in the three months ended March 31, compared with 1.69 billion yuan a year earlier, it said in a statement. It also marked an improvement on the 1.39 billion yuan net loss it posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Revenue rose to 7.98 billion yuan, beating estimates of 7.16 billion yuan. Nio delivered 20,060 vehicles in the quarter, a 423 percent increase from
Intel Corp wants 8 billion euros (US$9.7 billion) in public subsidies toward building a semiconductor factory in Europe, chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger was cited as saying on Friday, as the region seeks to reduce its reliance on imports amid a shortage of supplies. The pitch is the first time that Gelsinger has publicly put a figure on how much state aid he would want, as Intel campaigns to take on Asian rivals in contract manufacturing. “What we’re asking from both the US and the European governments is to make it competitive for us to do it here, compared to in Asia,”
RSS