Following Britain’s decision to ban Huawei from its 5G network, Germany has come under increased pressure to review its own relationship with the Chinese telecom firm.
The reversal has come amid fears of the potential for spying and sabotage on the part of the Chinese telecoms giant, which has close links to the Chinese regime.
“The British decision shows that security and economy can no longer be separated when it comes to our critical infrastructure,” Röttgen told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Röttgen echoed the British government’s concerns that U.S. sanctions against Huawei will damage the security of the equipment the firm produces.
“Instead of American chips, Huawei now has to use Chinese ones,” said Röttgen, who has long argued against cooperation with Huawei. “The federal government must also answer the question of how we are dealing with this new situation.”
Following the UK decision to ban Huawei, its main competitors Nokia and Ericsson, both European firms, issued statements saying they were ready to step in and replace Huawei equipment in the British network.
“A development in favour of a European solution is emerging, which Germany should join forcefully instead of taking a special path within Europe,” Röttgen urged.
Alternative for Germany (AfD), a highly conservative political party that holds 89 of the 709 seats in the Bundestag, has also called on Angela Merkel’s government to follow Britain’s footsteps.
“The AfD is calling on the German government to completely excluded the Chinese firm from our 5G rollout expansion and, in line with the British model, to set a deadline for network operators to completely strip all Huawei components from German networks.”
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