Todd Bishop
Liang Hua, chairman of Huawei, said at the meeting in London on the 14th of this month that Huawei is willing to sign a “no-spy agreement” with governments. Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei also said last month that Huawei has proposed to the German government to sign a “no-spyware agreement” to reduce Germany’s concerns about Huawei’s participation in the country’s 5G network construction.
The commentary published by Demedia’s “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on the 19th (Sunday) said that it is futile for Huawei to try to sign a “no-spy agreement” with European countries to win European support. The article believes that such an agreement must be signed by the Chinese government to be useful.
The review article stated that Huawei’s achievements are unmatched in the business. In just a few years, Huawei has become an industry giant and has become China’s pride. However, in the political arena, Huawei’s image is much worse. Recently, representatives of Huawei are moving around Europe. Through secret negotiations or public statements, Huawei hopes to sign a “no-spy agreement” with European countries to ensure that data transmitted through Huawei equipment will not be transferred to the Chinese government. Huawei hopes to eliminate outside concerns in this way.
The review article continued, Huawei also lobbied the German government to sign a “no-spy agreement”, but the German government has little interest. In Berlin, very few people are willing to mention the term “no-spy agreement”. When Germany was eavesdropped by the US National Security Agency, Germany and the United States had negotiated such an agreement, but it ended without results. Germany later lobbied such an agreement to European allies, but the result was revealed. It turned out that the German Federal Intelligence Agency had personally eavesdropped on European allies. Since then, the “no-spy agreement” has become a “sensitive word” of the German government.
The article believes that even if Huawei can find a more pleasing word than the “no-spy agreement”, the German government will not sign an agreement with Huawei. A spokesman for the German Federal Ministry of the Interior said that the key question is whether the Chinese government is willing to sign such an agreement, but the German side has not seen such signs yet.
