One of Huawei's European units has publicly called on regulators to conduct an inspection of its operations and equipment to prove that it does pose any type of national security risk to any country. This includes the inspection of its equipment used for the establishment of 5G mobile networks.
The head of Huawei Italy, Luigi De Vecchis, mentioned on Wednesday that the company is ready to be inspected inside and out to prove its innocence. He added that the company has no intention of leaving Italian and European markets despite all the pressures being placed against it by the United States government.
"We will open our insides, we are available to be vivisected to respond to all of this political pressure," Vecchis mentioned during the opening of Huawei's new cybersecurity center in Rome, Italy.
European countries, including Italy, have been under a lot of pressure from the United States, which has been lobbying for the complete ban on the use of Huawei's equipment and technologies for 5G mobile networks.
The U.S. has repeatedly accused Huawei of being a tool used by the Chinese government to spy on other countries. Huawei has denied all of the U.S.'s accusations, stating that it considers the security and privacy of its customers its top priority. The company has also denied that it is being used by the Chinese government for espionage.
While some European countries have already buckled under the U.S.'s continued pressures by opting to go with Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia for their 5G rollout, other countries have yet to make a decision. Germany's coalition government recently reached an agreement on how to go about the situation, revealing that it will not be banning Huawei from participating but it will be racing the bar for inclusion into its 5G network rollout.
Germany's decision, which will not outright ban the Chinese-vendor like the UK and France, will make it significantly harder for Huawei to establish a foothold in the market. Industry experts have noted that while Germany may not have banned Huawei perse, it has effectively strangled it with red tape. Norway has also made a similar decision, albeit a little less restrictive, to allow all companies to participate in its 5G network rollout.
