- Annabelle Liang
- Business Journalist, BBC News
20 mayo 2022
image source, Getty Images
Canada will ban two of China’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers from working on its 5G phone networks.
The restrictions are once morest Huawei and were announced Thursday by the country’s industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, who said the decision will improve mobile internet services and “will protect the safety of Canadians“.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said they will assess the situation and will take action to safeguard the interests of Chinese companies.
“Without any solid evidence, the Canadian side cited vague security risks as a pretext to exclude relevant Chinese companies from its market. This move violates the market economy principle and free trade rules and seriously damages legitimate rights and interests.” of Chinese companies,” the official said.
Huawei Canada responded with a statement saying it is “disappointed”: “This it is an unfortunate political decision It has nothing to do with cyber security or any of the technologies in question.”
“Five Eyes”
Several nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, have already imposed restrictions on these companies.
The four countries, along with Canada, make up a intelligence sharing agreement called Five Eyes (Five Eyes), which began operating following World War II and evolved during the Cold War as a mechanism to monitor the Soviet Union and share classified information.
Canada’s announcement was highly anticipated because its allies had already barred Huawei and ZTE from their own high-speed networks.
“This comes following a full review by our security agencies and consultation with our closest allies,” Champagne told reporters in Ottawa.
image source, Getty Images
Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the decision was to protect the safety of Canadians.
“Let me be very clear: we will always protect the safety of Canadians and take the necessary steps to safeguard our telecommunications infrastructure,” he added.
“In a world 5Gat a time when we depend more and more in our daily life (on) our network, this is the right decision,” he said.
“Attached to the best practices”
Huawei Canada said its devices were “closely scrutinized” by government and security agencies, adding there has been no “no incident of security caused by equipment of Huawei”.
“Banning Huawei equipment and services will lead to significant economic loss in Canada and increase the cost of communications for Canadian consumers,” it said.
“Unfortunately, this decision is out of our control as a company. However, we will do everything in our power to protect the rights and legitimate interests of our customers, partners and ourselves,” he added.
Meanwhile, ZTE said it rejects the “premise” of the Canadian government’s announcement, saying it is “highly speculative.”
“We have always stuck to the international standards and the better practicesopening our cybersecurity labs to allow regulators and stakeholders to verify the security of ZTE products,” the firm said.
The 5G (5th generation) is the next upgrade to mobile internet networks, offering much faster data upload and download speeds.
It also enables more devices to simultaneously access the internet, at a time when data usage is on the rise and the popularity of streaming videos and music is growing.
image source, Getty Images
5G technology allows internet connections at a much higher speed.
This is pushing governments and mobile phone network operators to improve their telecommunications infrastructure.
The Canadian government’s decision means that the country’s telecommunications companies will no longer be able to use equipment made by Huawei and ZTE.
Companies that have already installed equipment from these Chinese manufacturers will have to remove it, Champagne said.
Canada first announced a review of Huawei equipment in September 2018.
Some of China’s largest technology and telecommunications companies have been targeted in recent years by governments in the US and other Western countries for national security reasons.
US President Joe Biden signed legislation in November that prevents companies deemed security threats from receiving new telecommunications equipment licenses in the country.
This means that equipment from Huawei, ZTE and three other Chinese companies is banned from use on US telecommunications networks.
