Pompeo says world should have eyes wide open about Chinese tech risks

[March 01, 2019]  MANILA (Reuters) - U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the world should be "eyes wide open" about the risks of using Chinese technology, and that there could be problems for American firms operating in certain places where Huawei equipment was deployed.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Pompeo was asked during a visit to Manila about the prospect of the Philippines using Huawei 5G technology in future as it seeks to modernize outdated telecoms infrastructure.

"Our task has been to share with the world the risks associated with that technology: the risks to the Philippine people, the risk to Philippine security, the risk that America may not be able to operate in certain environments if there is Huawei technology adjacent to that," he told a news conference.

"We want to make sure that the world has their eyes wide open as to the risks of having that technology to be part of infrastructure, backbone or networks."

The U.S. government has been piling pressure on Huawei, the world' s biggest telecommunications equipment maker and trying to prevent American firms from buying Huawei routers and switches, as well as advising allies to do the same.

(Reporting by Martin Petty, Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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