Strong criticism of American threats around Huawei

The German government, but also Huawei, rejects threats from the United States about the safety of the Chinese supplier’s 5G equipment. Chancellor Angela Merkel says that her country sets its own security standards for a new 5G network and that this is not up to the United States.

The United States continues to put pressure on allies in an attempt to persuade as many countries as possible not to use Huawei network products. Only yesterday, the US Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, threatened that the US intelligence services would share less information with Germany if Huawei products were to form the basis for the 5G network there. That threat is not well received, either by the German Government or by Huawei.

Strong criticism

Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected the threat from Washington. However, she did tell us that her government shared the American concerns about Huawei’s ability to meet the high security standards for the new network. Security, especially when it comes to the expansion of the 5G network, but also in other areas in the digital domain, is a major concern for the German government, so we define our own standards, says Merkel.

Peter Beyer, Merkel’s transatlantic coordinator, said that people should not read too much in the US ambassador’s remarks. There are legitimate concerns as to whether a company with such close ties to the Chinese government can credibly meet the high safety standards, according to Beyer. However, Germany supports its own policy and argues that the cooperation of the German and American intelligence services is separate from the establishment of 5G networks.

Huawei himself is also very critical of the American threats. For example, Vincent Pang, who is in charge of Huawei’s Western European activities, has informed us that the American threats go too far. I believe that a country should not use its political power to harm a commercial company, says Pang.