The UK government made the surprising decision to move away from using Huawei equipment for its 5G infrastructure. And it is very possible that European Union countries may do the same as well. China is reportedly considering measures of its own to respond, if the ban in the EU does come to pass.
According to the Wall Street Journal, China’s Ministry of Commerce is thinking about placing export controls on Nokia and Ericsson. This will, in effect, prevent the two companies from exporting equipment made in China to other countries. That being said, this will be a last-resort move for only if the Huawei ban does happen in European countries.
This is likely in response to guidelines the EU announced back in January. Huawei was not specifically named in the guidelines, but it’s essentially a list of security standards to apply when using “high risk” suppliers of 5G tech.
This does sound a lot more tangible a threat compared to the reports of China’s blacklist from last year. It wouldn’t be surprising if both Nokia and Ericsson both have major manufacturing lines in the country. And the ramifications of not being able to sell them elsewhere should be obvious enough.
(Source: WSJ via Reuters, European Commission via CNET)
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