China's Revenge Strategy If The European Union Prohibits Huawei From Operating

JAKARTA - The Chinese government is working on a retaliatory strategy against two of Europe's main mobile phone manufacturers, Nokia Corp and Ericsson AB. This is done if members of the European Union follow in the footsteps of the United States (US) and Britain to block Huawei Technologies Co from creating a 5G network.

Quoted from CNET, Tuesday, July 21, China's Ministry of Commerce is considering controlling exports that will prevent Nokia and Ericsson from sending products made in China to other countries.

However, it is reported that the European Union has not banned Huawei from operating until now, but issued a warning advising telecom operators to be more careful in purchasing 5G network equipment. This is claimed to be a barrier to Huawei's presence.

Last week, Britain ordered its telecommunication operators not to buy 5G components from Huawei from the end of this year and remove all equipment made by the Chinese telecommunications giant from its 5G networks by 2027.

Meanwhile in the US, President Donald Trump's administration blacklisted Huawei for exports in May last year, essentially barring the company from importing any hardware into the US. The decision was made because of national security issues.

The US Commerce Department also added Huawei to the Entity List, which prohibits US companies from doing business with it. Of course that puts Huawei in a difficult position because it cannot work with suppliers in the US.

Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia are among the quickest beneficiaries of the US-led campaign against Huawei.