Where Huawei builds mobile phone networks, Beijing hears everything, the US has been warning for years. This fear has now also arrived in Germany.
Where Huawei and ZTE have their components in the 5G cell phone network, the Chinese government has direct access to communications, the US is convinced of that. Even more: China is said to have inserted a secret “kill switch”; a facility to cut off the desired country from the Internet. Japan, Australia and New Zealand followed the concerns of the USA and already in 2019 excluded Huawei from building the 5G network.
Even then, there was a discussion in Germany about how to deal with Huawei and ZTE, so that ultimately no bans were decided. Since then, wireless service providers have pushed ahead with the expansion of the super-fast mobile generation. A ban and the associated dismantling would set Germany’s network back by years. One thing is certain: the USA has not yet been able to prove that Huawei and ZTE are spying for the Chinese government. Above all, experts doubt the efficiency of the so often invoked “kill switch”; regardless of whether it is built into the hardware or the software. In both cases, a faulty component would be quickly identified and replaced.