While India has yet to decide if Chinese telecom giant Huawei will be included in forthcoming 5G trials, reports suggest China may take retaliatory action if the mainland company is barred. On Tuesday, an influential US Congressman alleged that China is “blackmailing” India into using Huawei for its 5G infrastructure, even as Beijing hoped that New Delhi will not succumb to any pressure from America.
The US has banned the world leader in telecom equipment and the number two smartphone producer Huawei, over concerns of security. Washington has been continuously putting pressure on other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.
The Trump administration has been asking all its allies and friends, including India, to block the entry of Huawei from using their 5G infrastructure, which is a next-generation cellular technology with download speeds stated to be 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G LTE networks.
The US also exerted pressure earlier this week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that the country “won’t be able to share” information with others who decide to adopt Huawei technology. “We won’t be able to work alongside them,” he said.
According to a news agency report,
the Chinese establishment has expressed their concern with Indian embassy officials in Beijing about the US campaign against Huawei and they said they hoped India would take an independent judgment on permitting its telecom giant Huawei in 5G trials and services in the country.
According to a recent report quoting Union Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, India plans to develop its own 5G network.
Senator Marsha Blackburn alleged that China, along with state-run company Huawei, is looking to push its spy embedded technology onto America and its allies. She said, “We need to draw a hard line to protect our national security interests and intellectual property.”
