Canada has said it will take steps to ban Huawei and ZTE from providing 5G services in the country, in a recent move by a US ally to target Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturers.
Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said Thursday that the country intends to “ban the inclusion of Huawei and ZTE’s products and services in Canada’s telecommunications system.”
“Suppliers who already have this equipment installed will have to stop using it and remove it,” he said. The federal government will not compensate companies for removing Huawei and ZTE equipment, he added. Equipment used for 4G networks will also need to be removed.
The United States and many of its allies have expressed strong concern in recent years about Huawei’s global expansion amid concerns that the company has ties to the Chinese military and facilitates Beijing’s cyber espionage around the world.
“We’ve been expecting this for three years,” Alihan Welsh, Huawei’s vice president of corporate affairs for North and South America, told CBC, a Canadian public television station, in an interview.
“We are disappointed with the result, but what the government has announced is the intention to introduce legislation, but there is currently no ban in the book selling Huawei equipment.”
Welsh said the federal government had not told Huawei what a threat to national security the company’s equipment posed to Canada.
“The government must provide evidence that Huawei is a threat to national security, as they claim. They didn’t do it. “
The Chinese embassy in Canada denied the decision as politically motivated and said Beijing would take “all necessary measures” to protect its companies.
The embassy also said Huawei and ZTE have strong cybersecurity records, and Ottawa’s decision not only harms Chinese interests but violates free trade and market economy principles.
The United States has long called on Canada to join other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network – which includes the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand – to ban Huawei from its domestic telecommunications networks. The United Kingdom and Australia have imposed restrictions banning the Chinese company from operating in their markets.
Huawei’s network equipment is used by a number of major Canadian telecommunications companies. In December, the Chinese group said Canadian telecoms had spent more than 700 million Canadian dollars ($ 546 million) on their technology.
The Trump administration has taken several steps to ban Huawei from participating in 5G networks in the United States as part of efforts to thwart the Shenzhen-based company.
He also blacklisted the group in the sales department, known as the “Entity List,” which prohibits U.S. companies from supplying Huawei technology and imposes additional restrictions that require any business to supply Huawei products containing U.S. technology to to apply for an export control license.
The ban on Huawei comes eight months after Ottawa allowed Meng Wangzhou, the company’s chief financial officer and daughter of founder Ren Zhengfei, to return to China after three years in Vancouver. Meng was detained on charges of criminal fraud and awaited a decision by a Canadian court on whether she could be extradited to the United States. She was released after reaching an agreement with the US Attorney’s Office.
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Hours after Meng’s release, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that two Canadians who had been detained in China for more than three years – Michael Spaver and Michael Kovrig, known as “the two Michael” – had been released.
Some experts speculate that Canada has previously been reluctant to ban Huawei despite US pressure because it wants to make sure it can secure the release of the two men.
Days after the release of Meng and the “two Michaels”, Trudeau said the decision on whether to ban 5G equipment made by Huawei was weeks away. But months passed before Thursday’s announcement.
“We took the time to do this review, to consult with the allies,” Champagne said. “When it comes to national security, you have to take the time to do things right.
Pressure on Huawei has grown in recent years as the United States has dealt with Chinese companies that they say allow Beijing to spy on or engage in activities that could threaten U.S. national security.
The Financial Times reported this month that the Biden administration plans to impose harsh sanctions on Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance camera company accused of facilitating human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Additional reports from Maiqi Ding in Beijing and Edward White in Seoul
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