Germany to ban Communist China’s Huawei, ZTE from its 5G networks

According to foreign media reports on March 8, a government source said that Germany is considering banning communist China’s companies Huawei and ZTE from using specific components in its telecommunications network. Thorsten Benner, an expert on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, said, “The devil is in the details. It would be a major step forward if this included all access network components where operators have made excessive use of Huawei in recent years.” Germany passed an IT security law in 2021 that sets high hurdles for telecom equipment manufacturers for next-generation networks but does not ban Huawei and ZTE as some countries have. A new report shows that Germany’s 5G radio access network equipment is more dependent on Huawei than 4G networks, and the government needs real-time information about it, which concerns Benner. Huawei and ZTE’s close ties to Beijing’s security services mean that using their equipment in mobile networks could give CCP’s spies and even saboteurs access to vital information. The German government is conducting a broader re-evaluation of Germany-China relations. It has made it clear that it is cautious about Huawei and is even seeking legislation to crack down on the company.