Beijing has lashed out at Washington’s opposition to Huawei developing 5G telecoms technology following the latest comments on the matter by Vice President Mike Pence which were specifically related to Ireland.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang blamed the White House for “abusing the concept of national security” which allegedly aims to block China’s commercial activity.
He lamented the fact that US officials make “irresponsible remarks” on what he described as “normal business cooperation” involving Chinese companies.
“This is a typical hegemonism and the politicisation of economic and trade issues. China is firmly opposed to this,” said Geng.
Pence Urges Ireland to Seek Alternative to China's Huawei 5G Network
The statement comes after US Vice President Mike Pence said during a joint press conference with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Monday that Washington calls on Ireland to seek an alternative to using China’s Huawei to obtain 5G telecommunications infrastructure.
“The United States urges Ireland and all our allies in Europe to reject [Chinese] equipment that could compromise the integrity of our shared telecom infrastructure. We're working with telecom companies across the world to develop 5G alternatives to Huawei and we hope to have the opportunity to work with the Republic of Ireland in this endeavour as well,” Pence said.
He spoke after Huawei revealed that it had struck deals on more than 50 commercial 5G contracts across the globe despite being blocked from some major markets, including Japan and Australia.
“Huawei’s 5G products are world leading products, with the highest level of maturity in terms of commercialisation. And Huawei will continue to develop its 5G technology steadily,” Huawei Board Director William Xu told CNBC on Tuesday.
In May, Washington blacklisted Huawei and restricted the company's access to the purchase of US hardware, also urging all of its allies to exclude the Chinese tech giant from their plans to establish 5G networks.
However, enforcement of the Huawei ban has been postponed and is now expected to come into effect on 19 November.
Huawei has, meanwhile, already provided its source code to the UK, Canada and Germany which plan to use Huawei components in their high-speed 5G internet networks amid warnings from the US that they could compromise the security of military communications.
The White House has repeatedly accused Huawei of collaborating with the Chinese government by conducting spy activities in the US, charges that both the company and Beijing vehemently deny.
US-China Trade Dispute
Washington’s crackdown on Huawei comes amid the US-China trade spat which escalated last month when China slapped tariffs on about $75 billion worth of US goods on crude oil and agricultural products, as well as taxes on US imports of automobiles and their components, starting 1 September and 15 December.
The decision followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would increase existing tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods from 25 percent to 30 percent starting on 1 October, and raise tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese products from 10 percent to 15 percent beginning on 1 September.
