EU 'rival' China: Nip it in the bud or over prepared?

With Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe drawing near, a new round of "China threat" was hyped up by Western media and politicians. An article published on CNBC entitled "Europe turns its concerns to China's growing clout as Xi visits", for example, plays up China's threat to Europe through its 5G network construction and investment and calls EU to have a "coordinated approach" to China.

The article also implied that EU "took its most significant step" as it branded China as "an economic competitor in the pursuit of technological leadership, and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance” in its new released EU-China: Strategic Outlook.

Is EU's concern over China a kind of reasonable self-protection or an over prepared move? Debate on whether to ban on Chinese tech giant Huawei can somehow reflect that.

Baseless Accusations

Huawei has long been devoted itself to basic science and technology investment and has been the first to make breakthroughs in key technologies for large-scale 5G. However, its development was attacked by Washington's accusations of spying for Beijing. Concern over its security is one of the reasons makes EU indecisive about Huawei.

A woman visits the Huawei Cyber Security Transparency Centre in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

But is Huawei really "untrusted" as the U.S. stated?

No solid proofs have yet been provided by the U.S. side. The U.S. itself did have record of spying. Snowden knows well how Merkel's personal cellphone was monitored by the U.S. National Security Agency.

Another "potential threat" was pointed out as some Western media reported that Huawei would be forced to hand over 5G data if it is required by the Chinese government by citing the article 7 in China's National Intelligence Law which stipulates the organizations to "support, assist in and cooperate in national intelligence work in accordance with the law".

But don't neglect the following article which gave a limitation of the "obligation", the national intelligence work should also be conducted in accordance with the law and protect the lawful rights and interests of organizations. According to John Gong, a research fellow at Charhar Institute and professor at the University of International Business and Economics, the law indicates that Chinese government will not force Huawei to do anything that violates its own interests.

EU caught in middle of China and U.S.

Actually, some EU countries did understand the situation and expressed their support to Huawei. According to Reuters, Ciaran Martin, UK's cybersecurity chief stated earlier at the Cybersec Brussels Leaders' Foresight forum that Britain can handle the security risks of using Huawei equipment and has not observed any evidence of malicious activity by Huawei combing with his 15-year working experience with the company.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier also expressed his firm stand stating that Germany does not want to exclude Huawei from the country's 5G networks constructions. However, his words soon got himself a "warning letter" from the U.S: Intelligence-sharing with Germany will be scaled back unless Huawei is blocked.

While many people believed that EU is caught in middle of China and the U.S., it is time for EU to think whether it should listen to the U.S. at the cost of their own interest.

According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Telekom AG, one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies assessed that if Huawei is banned, Europe would be left behind in the race of 5G.Officials from the company further pointed out that 5G network construction process will be delayed at least two years and "cost the industry many billions of euros"

There are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. Don't forget the fight between GSM and CDMA in 2G happened exactly between EU and the U.S.

An anxious EU

According to Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, internal and external dilemma have made EU increasingly sensitive and anxious.

Ryan Ding, the chief of Huawei's carrier business group, holds a Tiangang 5G base station chipset during a product presentation in Beijing, China, January 24, 2019. /VCG Photo‍

On one hand, many problems within Europe cannot be solved in the short term. On the other hand, EU found its international competitiveness and status have declined. For example, in the race of 5G, EU is lagged behind by China and the U.S.

The 5G standard is not really standardized yet and so does EU want to be the standard-setter. Cui stated that EU's ambivalent attitude towards Huawei is also for sake of protecting its own 5G suppliers.

However, EU should realize that closing the door could only bring short-term benefits,but never a long term option.

There is no strategic contradiction between China and EU, just as Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated " While competition between China and the EU is hard to avoid, cooperation is still the mainstream and win-win is the goal,"

(CGTN)