 |
| "Huawei is more committed to Europe than ever before," the company's top executive for Europe Abraham Liu said (AFP Photo/Tolga Akmen) |
Brussels (AFP) - Chinese telecom giant Huawei said on Tuesday it would set up manufacturing hubs in Europe, as it tries to fight off US pressure on EU nations to stop it from operating.
"Huawei
is more committed to Europe than ever before," said the company's top
executive for Europe Abraham Liu during a Chinese New Year reception in
Brussels.
"That's
why we have decided we want to set up manufacturing bases in Europe -- so that
we can truly have 5G for Europe made in Europe."
The
announcement comes just days after the EU recommended that member states could
ban telecoms operators deemed a security risk from critical parts of 5G
infrastructure.
But the EU
plan, which closely mirrored rules set out by Britain allowing a limited role
for Huawei, stopped short of barring the company from the next-generation
communications network designed for near-instantaneous data transfers.
Those
guidelines were the fruit of months of agonising within the EU, which has
struggled to find a middle way to balance Huawei's huge dominance in the 5G
sector with security concerns pressed by Washington.
Liu in his
speech acknowledged that the tech world "is increasingly entangled with
geopolitical issues, trade negotiations, and diplomatic dialogue between
nations".
"Politically
motivated suspicion does not address the challenges ahead," he added in a
veiled admonishment to Washington.
He also
urged Europe, the US and China to "invest more, in political discussion,
to talk about collaboration and common rules".
In Europe,
a ban on Huawei will now ultimately be up to member states, but the European
Commission's middle road recommendations give cover to European capitals to
resist pleas from Washington.
Building
factories in Europe would also help persuade EU countries to turn away from
tough measures against Huawei, with all eyes on Germany which has delayed its
decision on a possible ban.
According
to the company, it employs over 13,000 staff and runs two regional centres and
23 research centres in 12 EU countries.
Huawei is
one of the world's leading network technology suppliers, and one of the few --
along with European telecom companies Nokia and Ericsson -- capable of building
5G networks.
The United
States sees the company as a potential threat to cybersecurity and fears it
would facilitate cyber espionage by the Chinese government, to which it is said
to have close links.
No comments:
Post a Comment