Losses & profits. It’s not just the Chinese viruses that border movements are worried about. Everything that bears the name of Huawei is carefully scrutinized by the American and European authorities. Even the founder's daughter, Meng Wanzhou, the company's chief financial officer, is currently on trial in Canada for possible extradition to the United States. She faces twenty years in prison there for one day lying in Hong Kong to a Swiss banker about a subsidiary trading with Iran. America wants to break the Chinese technological jewel, the first company in the Middle Kingdom to have undisputed leadership in a fundamental digital field, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. The United States therefore went on a crusade around the world to convince their partners to ban Huawei equipment from new networks in the name of security.
A political problem
Europe, it does not know any more on which foot to dance. It is both the best customer of Chinese and the only area that has credible competitors, with the Swedish Ericsson and the Finnish Nokia. As in everything to do with the current trade dispute between China and the United States, Europe, the world's largest exporter and the most open market, finds it difficult to speak with one voice. Germany fears for its car sales and pleads for freedom of choice. France wants to be more circumspect. There is a problem Huawei, pleads the head of the National Agency for Information Systems Security (Anssi) in an interview with Echoes. For him, the 5G network will be so scattered throughout society, from businesses to fire departments, that interrupting the signal would be as damaging as cutting off the electricity. Would we accept that our nuclear power plants are Chinese?
The argument is strong, but one could argue that it already existed with regard to IT infrastructure under overwhelming American domination. But the United States is an allied democracy, and therefore more trustworthy. The problem is therefore political. Chinese authoritarianism coupled with American aggressiveness is pushing Europe out of its benevolent neutrality. But she won't. At best, this case should lead it, without excluding Huawei, to play a form of national preference in favor of its own players, so that they do not get out of the game and that its future sovereignty is preserved. It would already be a victory.
