China might strike back against European Union firms such as Nokia and Swedish firm Ericsson if the continued demand to ban Huawei continues to gain traction among EU countries, Wall Street Journal reports.
Huawei is the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker and one of the pioneers of the next stage of internet- the 5G technology. However, even though the company has such a revolutionary technology under its fold, Huawei’ has been facing a severe identity crisis, due to its alleged deep ties with China’s Communist government, linking it further to the Chinese Communist Party.
The United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and some countries of the EU have already completely banned Huawei. Britain is of the opinion that China hasn’t still told the entire truth about the origin of coronavirus, resulting in such drastic measures. Britain and the U.S. in particular, have been pressurizing the EU to ban Huawei completely.
After Britain banned Huawei, the company responded by saying that “bad news for Britain itself” and that it “would be damaging to British mobile customers”.
As retaliatory measures, China is now considering placing impediments in the way of Nokia and Ericsson, that will effectively stop them from sending products to other countries that were produced in China. Given how China is the hub of technological manufacturing, this decision would cut down heavily on the two companies. The larger fear could be a ban on US/UK tech firms as well, most of which are almost completely dependent on China for production.
In January 2020, the EU gave all its countries the option of either “restricting or excluding” high-risk 5G companies like Huawei. Following this, France, Italy, Belgium, have partially banned Huawei.
Elsewhere in Asia, China’s southern neighbor and world’s fastest growing internet market, India too has come down heavily on Chinese companies. However, India’s bans are linked to China’s intrusion on the long disputed borders between both companies. As a direct measure, India banned 59 popular Chinese apps from the country indefinitely. More recent ban measures include banning of Chinese companies from participating in critical infrastructure bids, as well as banning Huawei from providing equipment to state telecom companies.
