Much like the UK, Germany appears to not be fully capitulating to American calls to have an outright ban on Huawei’s involvement in national 5G networks. Many other European nations are also expressing skepticism towards an outright ban.
While they have indicated that they are willing to curtail the involvement of companies that are deemed ‘untrustworthy’ and subject to possible influence from foreign nations, they have not specifically named Huawei or China in doing so. Their plan would instead result in tightening security for all companies involved in Germany’s 5G network infrastructure. Going forward, equipment providers could be banned in the event that doing so would be in the public’s best interest. That being said, there has been a pervasive fear among German politicians that banning Huawei would result in retaliation from the Chinese government. Exports to the Chinese market, particularly from Germany’s automotive industry, which is the backbone of its national economy, could suffer tremendously if such retaliation were to occur.
The American government has threatened to discontinue sharing intelligence information with countries that don’t fully ban Huawei, which could have broader geopolitical implications, particularly as both Germany and the UK are the US’s closest intelligence sharing partners. Furthermore, Germany’s own chief intelligence officer has expressed doubts over the trustworthiness of Huawei and their potential involvement in Germany’s 5G network.
Competitors such as Ericsson and Nokia continue to struggle to match the prices offered by Huawei in these endeavors, making the Trump administration’s efforts against the company more difficult, particularly when it comes to influencing other nations to place an outright ban on them. Many European countries now find themselves in between a rock and a hard place when it comes to siding with the Americans or utilizing the cheaper technology offered by Huawei. However, there has been some interest from nations like Poland, eager to establish stronger ties with the US, to ban Huawei from their networks.
Meanwhile, the US has been turning up the pressure on Huawei in other ways. It recently added charges of racketeering and theft of trade secrets onto those of fraud and sanctions evasion filed last year. Furthermore, the US is taking further steps to close loopholes allowing American firms to continue to sell products to Huawei.
It should prove extremely interesting to see what other nations do next, and what other pressures both the US and Huawei attempt to apply in order to win supporters over to their side of the argument.
Some related articles that you might find interesting and that I used to help inform my own understanding of the issue:
https://www.ft.com/content/e17ba42a-4ce1-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5
https://www.ft.com/content/f97731da-fa6f-11e9-a354-36acbbb0d9b6
https://www.scmp.com/tech/gear/article/3050303/germanys-merkel-seeks-sideline-huawei-hawks-ruling-out-full-ban
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/16/business/economy/us-china-technology.html