Angela Merkel faces strong opposition over Huawei. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor is facing strong opposition over Huawei. The Chancellor is facing opposition from within her political party over her stance on refusing to bar Huawei, the Chinese Telecommunication Group, from participating in the next generation 5G roll-out, following concerns over security issues.
The Internal Resistance
The rebellion is coming from MPs from the Chancellor’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who have put forward a motion for the party’s annual conference that started on Thursday, the 21st of November,2019 in Leipzig, which would effectively ban the Chinese Telecom giant from participating in the 5G project.
The CDU motion calls on the government to present a bill to the Bundestag to clarify the requirements that Telecom Equipment Suppliers will have to meet, concerning security, safety and trustworthiness before they are allowed to participate in the 5G network rollout. The motion will also require the government to put in place a ‘transitional arrangement’ to ensure that facts are not created by the 5G build-out before a decision is made by the Parliament.
Angela Merkel is also facing pressures from within her cabinet to project a tougher stance towards Huawei. The Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas said ‘When it comes to safety of critical infrastructure in Germany, I cannot afford to ignore the political and legal realities that a supplier is subjected to.’
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Foreign Pressure
Germany’s ally, the United States has mounted a strong opposition to the German Chancellor’s refusal to ban Huawei citing serious security concerns as Beijing could use Huawei’s participation to conduct covert espionage and cyber sabotage.
In March, the US Ambassador to Germany warned Ms Merkel that the United States may likely scale back intelligence cooperation with Germany, should Chinese Telecom be given a role in the 5G Network.
Official Position
The German Chancellor is unlikely to change her stance on Huawei anytime soon as she argues that the government has “reached its decision to focus on tightening standards rather than banning individual companies, after careful consideration.”
Berlin Officials are concerned that a ban on Huawei would trigger retaliation against German companies doing business in China, which is Germany’s largest trading partner. Germany’s investment in China rose from £30bn in 2010 to £81bn in 2017.
Potential Repercussion
The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Germany underlined the concerns of the German Official by reiterating that a ban that is “purely politically motivated ” and “resulted from foreign pressure” would lead to an “extremely negative effect on future cooperation between Germany and China.”
The company continues to deny that its technology poses any security risk as claimed by the United States.