Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
More countries considering Huawei ban
A man walks past a Huawei phone retail shop in Beijing, China, Dec. 19. Reuters
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
Huwei's hopes to “dominate the market” for the next generation of mobile communications networks are threatened around the world as more countries see the company's devices as national security threats that must be removed.
So far, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have barred the Chinese telecom equipment provider from taking part in their 5G infrastructure build-outs amid concerns of its links with China's government.
As Huawei nervously watches other countries' moves, Germany's Deutsche Telekom
last week that it would “re-evaluate its procurement strategy” in regard to Huawei. The company also said it took “the global discussion about the security of network elements from Chinese manufacturers very seriously.”
The statement came after Alex Younger, director of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, reportedly
that Britain needed “to decide the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies.”
A few days later, British Telecom
it was removing Huawei equipment from the core part of a U.K. communications 3G and 4G networks for police and other emergency responders.
Meanwhile, the European Union's (EU) head of technology policies, Andrus Ansip,
all EU members “have to be worried” about security risks that Chinese companies posed in European 5G and driverless car projects.
“They have to cooperate with their intelligence services,” he said. “This is about mandatory backdoors. I was always against having those mandatory backdoors … (It is) about chips they can put somewhere to get our secrets.”
The list goes on.
and Belgium are also studying the security risks of using Huawei devices.
Huawei, founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, former engineer at the People's Liberation Army, denies that it has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party or has any intention to design equipment to facilitate eavesdropping.
But many experts say no Chinese company is fully independent of its government, which can legally require companies to assist with intelligence gathering.
Apparently, in its core markets, Huawei is losing the argument.