US and China escalate Huawei feud in Europe with warnings to Germany and Poland
- Washington reportedly tells Berlin it will scale back its intelligence sharing if Germany uses Huawei’s technology and equipment for its 5G network
Beijing and Washington have expanded their Huawei war in Europe, with ambassadors escalating the dispute over the Chinese telecoms giant.
In the latest flare-up, US ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell sent a letter to the German minister for economic affairs and energy, Peter Altmaier, warning that Washington would scale back its intelligence sharing with long-time ally Germany if Huawei’s technology and equipment were used for its 5G network, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Germany announced this month that it would not exclude any company from bidding on 5G contracts.
In neighbouring Poland, Chinese ambassador to Warsaw Liu Guangyuan warned that abandoning Huawei would come at a steep cost to the country.
“If Poland abandons Huawei, it will cost 8.5 billion euros (US$9.6 billion) in losses to the Polish economy, and communication costs for the Polish people will more than double,” the ambassador told the state-run Chinese tabloid Global Times.