US threatens to cut intelligence sharing with Germany over refusal to ban Huawei

The battle between China, Trump administration, and Huawei seems not to have an end in sight. Huawei and other Chinese companies have been under fire from the Trump administration following several accusations including allegations of been used by the Chinese government for espionage. Although Huawei has repeatedly denied been used by by Chinese Government, and even challenged the US govt to publicly release evidence backing up its claims, all that has fallen on deaf ears as the US government has asked its allies to cut their relationships with Huawei.

While some allies including NewZealand have succumbed to pressures from Washington, countries like Germany have refused to followed suit and has rolled out new conditions which must be met if the Chinese firm must take part in the 5G mobile network rollout. Huawei has expressed its readiness to comply with any condition set by any government including setting up a cybersecurity hub in Poland if concerned authorities accept this as a possible solution.

Now, the States, perturbed by Germanys refusal to impose company specific restriction from German communications regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA)  for its 5G infrastructure has issued a stern warning to Germany threatening to cut down on the intelligence it shares with Germany if Huawei wins a contract to build the country’s next-generation 5G network. The warning is contained in a letter sent by the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, to Germany’s economics minister Peter Altmaier, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

We are not sure if the German communications regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) will yield to Washington’s warning as the country’s federal cybersecurity agency has already rolled out the country’s 5G security requirements, the requirements are quite strict, but not a complete and specific restrict on Huawei.