Australia blocks China’s Huawei, ZTE from 5G development on security grounds
Huawei and ZTE are two of the world’s biggest telecoms equipment suppliers
Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, the two leading Chinese telecommunications equipment providers that have invested heavily on research and development of next-generation networks, have been excluded from building Australia’s 5G infrastructure after Canberra laid out new rules.
“The government considers that the involvement of vendors who are likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law, may risk failure by the carrier to adequately protect a 5G network from unauthorised access or interference,” Canberra said in a 5G security guidance to Australian carriers on Thursday, without singling out Huawei and ZTE.
“This is an extremely disappointing result for consumers. Huawei is a world leader in 5G. Has safely & securely delivered wireless technology in Australia for close to 15 year,” Huawei Australia said in a post on social media.
Shenzhen-based Huawei works with all of Australia’s major telecoms network operators and more than 50 per cent of Australians use a device from the Chinese company for some part of their daily communications needs, according to a description on its Twitter account.
China expressed “serious concern” about the Australian government’s action, according to a statement on Thursday from Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
“Australia should not use various excuses to artificially set obstacles and adopt discriminatory practices,” Lu said. “China urges the Australian government to abandon ideological prejudice and provide a fair competitive environment for Chinese companies operating in Australia.”
Huawei did not comment further beyond its statement on Twitter. ZTE declined to comment.