Following reports that Huawei is suing the US government, the Trump administration has informed the German government it will limit its intelligence sharing if it allows Huawei to build Germany’s 5G infrastructure.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, US Ambassador to Germany, Richard A. Grenell sent a letter outlining this to Germany’s economics minister.
This letter marks the first official warning from the US that refusing to ban Huawei could result in a lack of security co-operation with Washington — including on matters relating to terrorism.
For months, the Trump administration has urged its allies to prevent Huawei and other Chinese telcos from participating in 5G construction.
The locus of the US’s — and Australia’s — concern is the potential threat of Huawei sharing consumer’s private data with the Chinese government.
Huawei has repeatedly denied that it would do anything of the sort and has pointed out that the US government has not produced any evidence to suggest otherwise.
Germany has also stated that it has received no indication that the Chinese company would spy on German’s citizens, as the telco already operates the 3G and 4G network there.
Currently, the US plans to continue sharing its intelligence with Germany, but officials reportedly plan to decrease the extent of access if Huawei equipment is in use in the future.
The on-going privacy saga continues to escalate, with the Chinese telco giant suing the US government for its 5G ban.
Reportedly, Huawei has no plans to sue the Australian government, for now.
