German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the country would be determined to remove Chinese components from its 5G telecommunications network if that was best for national security.
In an interview with Handelsblatt, Faeser said that high costs were no reason not to consider replacing components from Chinese suppliers Huawei Technologies and ZTE in 5G networks. “We will block Chinese equipment if it poses a major security risk,” the head of the German interior ministry said. “Telecoms will have to take action and remove all components.”
Unlike many other European countries, Germany has so far avoided a direct ban on Huawei’s 5G technology despite pressure from the United States to exclude Chinese telecom infrastructure companies. Instead, Berlin has required all components used in “critical IT infrastructure” to be labeled with regulatory approval.
The German Interior Ministry is responsible for inspecting the country’s 5G network to determine how many components are supplied by Huawei and ZTE. Mr. Faeser said that although the count is not yet complete, the risk from Chinese components “has been known for a long time.”
“Our security agencies have repeatedly warned about one-way dependencies and I think network providers have been given enough time to adjust to this,” the Berlin official said.
(According to Bloomberg)
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