European officials should take a softer line toward Chinese telecommunications companies than the policy that the United Kingdom unveiled last week, according to a British telecommunications executive.
“We would reprioritize money we would have spent on rollout [of 5G] to replace equipment, and that delays 5G rollout,” Vodafone CEO Nick Read said on Wednesday. “It isn’t an issue in the U.K., but I wouldn’t want [caps] in Europe. It would be hugely disruptive.”
Read’s comments suggest the European tech industry is mobilized against even the limited restrictions that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled last week when he flouted U.S. warnings that Huawei and other Chinese companies are tools of Beijing’s spy services. Johnson’s government opted to put a cap on the percentage of the 5G market that Huawei and other “high-risk” vendors provide, a policy that Read does not want to see replicated in the rest of Europe.
“We can’t hold back 5G deployment, and caps would be restrictive on that basis,” he told the British press.
Johnson’s decision was a disappointment in Washington. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has waged a yearlong campaign to discourage allied nations from allowing Huawei to build the countries’ 5G infrastructure, warning that Chinese intelligence agencies could exploit the Western reliance on these companies.
“We’re going to continue to make sure that we do the right thing for not only our American information to make sure that others, including every nation with which we interact, understands the risk associated with that,” Pompeo said in London after Johnson’s team revealed their policy.
Vodafone’s partnership with Huawei has proved a diplomatic impediment for the United States. In Hungary, the central European home of Huawei’s largest overseas hub, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has deflected Pompeo’s warnings by noting the ties between Vodafone and the Chinese tech giant.
Huawei, having staved off Pompeo’s attacks in London, is launching a new push to woo European powers.
“Huawei is more committed to Europe than ever before,” Abraham Liu, Huawei’s vice president for Europe, said on Tuesday. “That is 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.”
