|
In March, Germany set tougher criteria for
vendors of telecoms network equipment, stopping short of
singling out Huawei for special treatment and instead saying the
same rules should apply to all vendors.
That decision came after months of debate over whether to side
with the United States and some allies in barring Huawei, the
global market leader, from 5G networks due to concerns over the
firm's ties to the Chinese government.
After meeting Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei in Shanghai, German
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said: "I made it very clear that
telecommunication security is of high importance, that we expect
all operators to fulfill our security requirements and that it
is now Huawei's duty to show us that they are able to do so."
A spokeswoman for Altmaier said he had also stressed that the
protection of citizens' data and compliance with German law were
key.
She said Altmaier and Zhengfei had discussed legal and technical
security issues surrounding 5G expansion, cloud structures, as
well as the automation of manufacturing technologies and related
data exchange, which is known as "industry 4.0".
Huawei declined to comment on the meeting.
German telecoms operators have opposed Washington's call to ban
Huawei, warning that any requirement to rip out and replace
Huawei equipment in existing networks could delay the rollout of
5G networks by years.
Germany's pricey 5G spectrum auction came to an end earlier this
month.
(Reporting by Christian Kraemer in Berlin and Sijia Jang in Hong
Kong; Writing by Riham Alkousaa and Michelle Martin; Editing by
Tassilo Hummel and Thomas Escritt)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
