Australia's ban on Chinese Huawei and ZTE equipment is escalating into a conflict



08/28/2018 4:23 PM


China warned Australia that its recent decision to ban Huawei and ZTE Corp from supplying technological equipment for the new generation 5G mobile networks will have a negative impact on the Australian business. This is reported by the Asia Times.



Kārlis Dambrāns
The Chinese state media went even further. The Global Times publication accused Canberra of "hitting China in the back," and the China Daily described the decision as "disappointing and detrimental to bilateral cooperation."

"The rash step again casts a shadow over the bilateral ties, which have recently shown some signs of improvement," the China Daily said.

Last week, Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE were banned from supplying technological equipment for mobile 5G networks to Australia for reasons of national security.

"The government believes that participation of suppliers who can obey the unofficial instructions of foreign governments violating Australian law creates the risk that the operator may not be able to provide adequate protection for 5G networks from unauthorized access or interference," the government said in a statement.

Although Huawei and ZTE are not listed in this statement, Huawei reported that the Australian government had banned it from supplying equipment for the 5G to the country.

"The decision of the Australian government to remove Huawei from the Australian market 5G is a politically motivated step, not the result of a fact-based, transparent or fair decision-making process," Huawei said.

Australian officials noted that the ban for Huawei and ZTE was introduced because of concerns that Beijing may order Chinese companies to participate in data collection activities.

The head of Huawei's consumer business, Richard Yu, objected: "We are independent of any country, any government, we are not engaged in politics." He accused the competitors of the fact that the company banned from delivering to Australia.

Chairman of the Board of Huawei in Australia John Lord said in a letter to lawmakers that the decision would result in the loss of 750 jobs in the country, since "completely excluding Huawei from 5G in Australia means to exclude Huawei from the entire Australian market." He also said that the costs for consumers will increase.

source: atimes.com


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