US hostility toward Chinese telecom company Huawei continues to be a top
priority for the Trump Administration, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visiting his German counterpart and threatening them for reports that they might use Huawei for a large infrastructure project.
With billions of dollars in global investment expected for 5G
infrastructure, Huawei is a major competitor for a number of US
companies. The Trump Administration’s argument is that countries
considering Huawei had better not do so.
As with other US lobbying against foreign tech companies, the argument
is nominally that there are “security concerns.” In the case of Huawei
and Germany, this means threatening the US dramatically curbing
intelligence sharing with Germany for choosing Huawei to build
infrastructure.
US officials can superficially make the case that telecommunications is
linked to intelligence sharing. In practice, however, many believe that
the US is trying to extort allies into signing more expensive deals with
US companies instead of Huawei.
Pompeo Threatens Germany Over Possible Huawei Telecom Deal
Says Germany would lose access to US intelligence
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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