The European Union is the top destination for chinese companies, which only in 2017 invested more than 35,000 million euros in the continent, according to the consulting firm the Rhodium Group. Almost 60% of that money went to infrastructure and telecommunications. And, in the development of mobile networks 5G, appetite inverter does but increase.
This greed, however, has cautioned the Commission and several countries, who view with special concern the entry of public capital in strategic companies (which theoretically is not the case of Huawei). Germany and France fear that these acquisitions involve the transfer of technology to their countries towards Beijing and, in addition, put in risk the security and sovereignty of europe. The vice-president of the Commission in charge of the portfolio of the Digital Single Market said Friday that last concern: the possibility that the suppliers or manufacturers of technology chinese to collaborate with the intelligence services in Beijing.
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“do We have to be concerned by Huawei or other chinese companies? Yes, I think that we have to be,” he said with rotundiad. Ansip reported that China is demanding back doors (backdoors in the jargon) required. These consist in a sequence that allows you to avoid the security systems of a device. One of their purposes can be the espionage —industrial or state— or control device of a citizen without his consent. “You can put any chip to have access to our secrets,” warned Andrus Ansip.
although he claimed to be unaware “exactly” the reasons for the arrest of Meng, Ansip warned that “as citizens of the normal and current” no reason to “be concerned”. In particular, it judged that “it is not a good use of science” to oblige the companies to open their systems to the secret services of a country, in this case China.
The statements Ansip led to unrest in the company, which in a statement said he was “surprised” and “disappointed”. The company denied “categorically” that poses a threat to the security and that no Government has asked to create systems to access illicitly in the mobile users.
The development of the mobile network 5G, a key infrastructure that Europe hopes to deploy in 2019, has meant that several countries have looked with a magnifying glass the movements of Huawei. Some have even gone to veto the use of computers manufactured by the chinese company, which leads the technological development worldwide in this field. It is the case of Australia and New Zealand.
The reluctance to deliver projects to chinese companies because of fear of espionage have also come to Europe. In the Uk, British Telecom announced Wednesday that it has begun to remove the equipment from Huawei and their networks of 3G and 4G and that the company will not have access to the 5G.
security Risks
About the company Shenzhen weigh the conclusions of a british Government report that stated that the equipment manufactured by the company had been exposed to the telecommunications networks of the country to security risks. Huawei pledged on Friday to address these issues with an investment of 2,000 million dollars (1.753 mllones euros), Reuters reported.
But the suspicions of the European Commission not only limited to the presence that may have China as a technology provider in the EU. Brussels has already on track with a regulation to control investments from third countries that may compromise the “security” or “public order”. This could be ratified by the Parliament at the beginning of 2019.
The new eu regulation to scrutinize the investments of third countries was applauded by France, Germany and the previous Italian Government. The Government of Angela Merkel has already slowed down in 2016, an operation of 670 million euros on the technological Aixtron by a fund linked to the chinese Government.
however, some countries are reluctant to the rule, such as Greece, Portugal and now the new Executive Italian, headed by Giuseppe Conte, according to eu sources. These countries see in the capital of chinese an opportunity to re-launch their economies. Public companies of chinese have been made with infrastructure such as the port of Piraeus and the container terminal in Valencia or they have released an offer by the main power of Portugal. The EU wants to at least be able to give an opinion on this type of operations.
