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The United States is doing everything it can to separate itself from the Chinese hardware manufacturer Huawei. The company provides the technology needed for the deployment of 5G networks. But as far as the U.S. Department of Defense is concerned, it is better to buy from rivals like Nokia and Ericsson.

That’s what news agency Reuters reports today, based on an employee of the Pentagon. Ellen Lord says there’s unlikely to be an all-American solution. Instead, the Ministry of Defence is in talks with Ericsson and also with Nokia to see if they can help roll out 5G networks in the country.

Own 5G network

However, this is not the only thing; the United States is also laying the foundations for the development of its own 5G network. The country does this out of fear of espionage via the 5G networks. If, for example, they are installed by a foreign party, this may pose a risk of espionage via the networks. According to the US, back doors could be built in.

That is why the US does not want Huawei to participate in the roll-out of the 5G networks. Chinese law requires individuals and companies to cooperate in espionage. For the United States, that was enough to introduce a ban on Huawei network products, even though the company itself stated that an independent lawyer had established that the legislation could not be interpreted in any way. Earlier this month the company even sued the American government around this issue.

Military affair

But according to the Lord, the roll-out of 5G networks within the United States is also a military issue. Lord says that on the military side of the story there is a great dialogue about the way forward. She says that there are a lot of European allies who are leaning towards us and want to work with us on this.

In the meantime, it appears that the Commission intends to ignore the United States’ call for Huawei to be refused permission to build up 5G networks. There could be safety risks, but there will probably not be a ban. Here in the Netherlands, too, things do not seem to get this far, although the GroenLinks (Green Left), among others, states that it is an unacceptable risk to work with the company as long as the Communist Party’s grip on the Chinese business world is so great.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.