The hostility of the US towards the Chinese telecom giant Huawei is now known all over the world. The US government believes that should the company be left unchecked American security could be compromised in the event hostilities with the Southeast Asian country surges. Not only that, the US, according to a report is also pressuring other European countries not to let Huawei's 5G equipment gain a foothold but it seems that this is no longer the case in Germany.
Recently, Germany finalized rules for the release of Huawei 5G in the country and the deployment of the networking equipment necessary for its operation. Earlier this year, Der Spiegel, Germany's head of IT security, noted that threats from the Huawei 5G networking equipment could be mitigated by supply diversity and encryption. The German government has recently cleared local carriers for using and purchasing 5G equipment made by the Chinese tech giant.
All three german carriers, namely Vodafone, Deutsche Telekon, and Telefonica Deutschland, depend on Huawei 5G equipment. But, they also depend on equipment from Ericsson and Nokia to make sure that over dependability to a sole supplier will not obstruct operations. Earlier today, government spokesperson Steffen Seibert shared in the news conference that the country is not taking any pre-emptive action to ban any company or actor.
The local publication Handelsblatt also revealed the details of the security requirements for telecommunications networks that will soon be made public by German officials. Based on the draft, it is stated that the German Federal Office for Information Security will take the lead in conducting a series of safety tests for crucial, core networking equipment. The rules also state that the German federal government will entail trustworthiness statements from Huawei 5G equipment manufacturers.
Through this, operators will have an alternative to suing equipment providers whose equipment will later reveal to have security ambiguities. Several speculations claim that the Chancellory has a crucial part in allowing the Chinese tech giant to sell Huawei 5G equipment in the country. The Handelsblatt thinks that a vital clause in the report which necessitates sourcing only from trusted suppliers did not make it to the final security requirements because of the pressure from the Chancellory as well as from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The report believes that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is afraid of a potential confrontation with China, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs would not want the country to be left behind in terms of 5G technology.
