Annual Munich Security Conference, “Davos Defense”, is going to start meetings this week. From the rooftop of the legendary five-star Bayerischer Hof, hosting a conference attended by leaders such as Emmanuel Macron And Olaf Soltz, you can see dozens of telecommunications and radio antennas on roofs and poles. Some of them, located at a distance of 300 meters from the meeting point, are, according to Politicomade by the scandalous Chinese company Huawei.

The issue of Chinese 5G vendors going west has become a bone of contention between Berlin on the one hand and Washington and its partners on the other in recent years. This week’s meeting comes at a time when the US continues to criticize Germany’s economic dependence on Beijing, as well as “soaring” tensions between Washington and Beijing over recent sightings of “surveillance probes” in American skies.

“Huawei’s reliance on 5G technology supplies continues to pose an incalculable security risk due to the company’s proximity to the Chinese state,” said Maximilian Funke-Kaiser, a liberal German MP and FDP spokesman for digital policy. participation in government. Huawei has consistently denied that it poses a security risk to European countries.

Suspect partner

Opinions vary about the security risk associated with Huawei equipment. Some states argue that the real danger of Chinese telecommunications equipment lies in its over-reliance on a Chinese company in an unstable geopolitical situation, just as Europe has relied on Russian natural gas for its energy needs.

Others, however, argue that the risk is deeper and that China could use Huawei’s access to equipment and data on European mobile networks – especially in critical and high-value areas – to compromise Western security. The US recently banned all companies based in the country from selling equipment to the Chinese tech giant, while investigations show Huawei has already been implicated in several high-profile spying cases, including at the headquarters of the African Union, the unified body of almost all African states.

Asked about Huawei’s presence in Munich, Mike Gallagher, chairman of the US House Committee on China, said the findings are “alarming” and “should be of concern to every person present at the conference.”