Date: 8th August 2019
The Chinese government told India to not ban Huawei Technologies in their country or else Indian firms operating in China may face negative consequences, sources informed reporters.
India is in the process of trying out its 5G network in the coming months. However, Ravi Shankar Prasad, telecoms minister, said that it has not yet decided whether Huawei will be part of the process or not.
The Chinese tech giant has faced sanctions from the United States as the latter claims that the company is a concern to the national security of the country. Washington alleged that Huawei equipment could be used to collect private information of users and send it back to Beijing. Thereafter, the company had been put on the trade blacklist of the US, banning US companies from trading with the company at all. Besides that, President Donald Trump’s administration has also urged allies to boycott Huawei equipment.
Two sources who had information about the discussions in New Delhi regarding the matter said that India’s ambassador in Beijing visited the Chinese foreign ministry last month. The meeting discussed the concerns of the country regarding the US campaign towards boycotting Huawei from the 5G network development worldwide.
One of the sources said that the Chinese officials said India could face “reverse sanctions” if they banned Huawei in their country by being influenced by the moves of Washington.
A spokeswoman said that Huawei has been operating in India for a long time and helped the economy of the country in visible ways. Moreover, Beijing hopes that India makes an objective decision regarding the bidders of 5G network development in the country.
There were no comments received from the Indian foreign ministry on the matter.
Jim Banks, US Congressman, said in a tweet that the Chinese government is now “blackmailing” India into selecting Huawei for its 5G network development.