An influential US Congressman on Tuesday allegedly said that China is “blackmailing” India into using Huawei for its 5G infrastructure. U.S. Congressman Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, criticised the Chinese Communist Party, in one of his tweet that it was “strong-arming” nations into “surveillance and espionage”. He wrote, “China is now blackmailing India into using #Huawei for its 5G infrastructure – they know no bounds! The #CCP moves to strong-arming countries into exposing themselves to surveillance and espionage.”
Huawei, which was about to become the world’s biggest maker and smartphone brand in the world, was put into a halt as the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration put the company on a blacklist in the month of May, quoting national security issues. It has then also asked its allies for not using Huawei equipment, which it says China may possibly exploit for spying.
Earlier, the US has banned, the world leader in telecom equipment, as well as the number two smartphone producer, Huawei, over some of the issues of security, and now Washington, has been also putting pressure on other nations to limit the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.
Ever since its ban by the US, the Trump administration has also been asking all its associates as well as friends, which also comprise of India, to block the entry of Huawei from using their 5G infrastructure, which is considered to be a next generation cellular technology with download speeds indicated to be 10 to 100 times faster than the existing 4G LTE networks.
The 5G networking standard is seen as critical for the reason that it can support the next generation of mobile devices adding to new applications such as driverless cars.
“China is now blackmailing India into using Huawei for its 5G infrastructure – they know no bounds!” Congressman Jim Banks said.
The Chinese Communist Party “moves to strong-arming countries into exposing themselves to surveillance and espionage”, he allegedly said.
On the other hand, China on Tuesday hoped that India would make an “independent and objective” decision on allowing its telecom giant Huawei in 5G trials and services in the nation.
“Huawei has carried out operations in India for a long time, and has made contributions to the development of Indian society and the economy that is clear to all,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.
“On the issue of Chinese enterprises participating in the construction of India’s 5G, we hope the Indian side makes an independent and objective decision, and provides a fair, just and non-discriminatory commercial environment for Chinese enterprises’ investment and operations, to realize mutual benefit.”
As per to a recent report citing Union Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, India is planning to develop its own 5G network.
Senator Marsha Blackburn also alleged that China, together with state-run company Huawei, is considering to push its spy entrenched technology onto America as well as its allies. “We need to draw a hard line to protect our national security interests and intellectual property,” she said.
Initially, previous this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that if a nation accepts Huawei technology, the US “won’t be able to share” any information with them. “We won’t be able to work alongside them,” he said.
