In a move to safeguard national security, Germany ordered its mobile carriers to remove all Chinese components, including those made by Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE, from its domestic 5G networks.
The decision seeks to shield Germany’s critical infrastructure from China, which is seen as a security risk.
Huawei and ZTE equipment, among other Chinese telecommunications companies, have long faced allegations that they could engage in espionage, exploit network vulnerabilities to insert malware and viruses, and otherwise compromise critical communications networks.
“5G networks are dual tools that serve to facilitate communications, but at the same time are used as intelligence mechanisms by China,” Luis Somoza, an Argentine expert on defense and international relations, told Diálogo on August 21. “To accept this type of technology from Chinese companies in Europe or Latin America is to be under the magnifying glass of the Chinese People’s Party.”
Components originating from Chinese companies will be barred from 5G networks by late 2026 and must be completely replaced by 2029 at the latest, Germany’s Interior Ministry said in July.
“We are protecting the central nervous systems of Germany as a business location, and we are protecting the communication of citizens, companies, and the state,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.
In 2022, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Western countries not to “trade security for economic profit” referring to debates over the use of Chinese technology in 5G at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Reuters reported. “We must recognize that our economic choices have consequences for our security. Freedom is more important that free trade, the protection of our values is more important that profit,” Stoltenberg said.
Nordic electronics manufacturers Ericsson and Nokia, suppliers that represent the only major 5G alternatives for network equipment, have highlighted on several occasion the risk and continued presence of Huawei in some of Europe’s largest economies.
“NATO was put on high alert by China’s growing influence and its international policies on telecommunications issues related to espionage and defense,” Somoza said. “There is a serious danger of national security risks and vulnerabilities, as there are Western intelligence reports that confirmed that China takes advantage of network equipment supplied by its companies, to use the information to its advantage.”
In June 2023, the European Union (EU) Commission said in a statement that the measures several countries of the bloc had adopted, restricting or excluding Chinese companies from 5G networks, were justified, Argentine daily Ámbito reported.
“On the basis of a wide range of available information, the European Commission considers that Huawei and ZTE do in fact pose materially higher risks than other 5G providers,” the EU said.
For Carlos Augusto Chacón, executive director of the Hernán Echavarría Olózaga Institute of Political Science in Colombia, “according to its legislation, technology companies in the People’s Republic linked to 5G are under the daily control of the Chinese intelligence service,” he told Argentine newspaper La Nación.
Mistrust of Chinese companies’ networks has grown in recent years. In 2019, for example, the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands advised the government not to use this technology after discovering Chinese and Russian attempts at digital espionage, Voice of America reported.
“It is paramount to recognize that implementing Chinese 5G technology solely for issues associated with low cost or company lobbying, produces in the medium and long term negative impacts in sensitive areas such as cybersecurity, anti-aircraft defense systems, and strategic infrastructures,” Somoza concluded.
