Germany vs. Huawei: Decision Looms On Allowing Chinese Telecom Giant To Participate In 5G Rollout

The German government will wait until 2020 to announce whether Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei will take part in the country's 5G rollout.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has so far defied U.S. pressure to ban Huawei from its 5G networks, but her own party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is split on the issue. The Social Democratic Party (SPD), the other member of Merkel's ruling coalition, has backed a proposal that would essentially block Huawei from the 5G project.

“I think we will have a solution in January,” SPD politician Jens Zimmermann said. “We will have a common blueprint and it will be considerably more severe.” Some German lawmakers fear that Huawei could compromise Germany's 5G network.

Merkel has said that 5G security standards should be high but fears that excluding Huawei could damage trade relations between Germany and China.

China's ambassador to Germany recently threatened the German government if it excludes Huawei as a supplier of 5G wireless equipment.

"If Germany were to take a decision that leads to Huawei's exclusion from the German market, there will be consequences," Chinese Ambassador Wu Ken said. He then mentioned the millions of cars that German automakers sell to China, possibly a threat towards Germany's automobile industry.

Merkel has said that she is unaware of any Chinese pressure on the Huawei issue.

"Nothing has been expressed to me about pressure by the Chinese authorities," Merkel said Wednesday in front of Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.

"I am against excluding a company on principle but I am in favor of doing everything to ensure security and that, for example, includes a diversification of offers - we do trust the security authorities in fact - if I stopped doing that, it would be really bad," Merkel continued. Ericsson and Nokia are two other companies that can supply Germany with 5G equipment.

Trump administration officials have made multiple foreign trips to convince various governments not to allow Huawei onto their 5G networks. The U.S. fears that by doing so, it would allow Huawei to hand over sensitive U.S. information to the Chinese government.

Poland is one European country banning Chinese companies from its 5G networks, while Hungary will work closely with Huawei, due to strong Hungarian-Chinese ties.