What to make of Sweden's exclusion of Huawei and ZTE from its 5G infrastructure?
In October 2020, the Swedish postal and telecommunications agency has published its decision to exclude two Chinese vendors from the rollout of the future mobile network infrastructure, better known as 5G: Huawei and ZTE. The decision is being challenged in court at the moment. Sweden's announcement follows after a long debate across the West. Often seen as being part of the US-China tech rivalry, Europe has discussed how to position itself. In an attempt to coordinate a European approach, the EU published a "toolbox" in early 2020. With the exception of the United Kingdom (non-EU member) no other European state has taken such an explicit decision against the Chinese technology firms.
Since late 2018, I closely follow the debate from technological, economic, political and security angles. Please find below my press commentary on the Swedish decision as well as two related publications.
Related selected publications & media appearances:
Media: "Kinas plan: Verbala attacken mot Sverige ska skrämma Tyskland", 26 January 2021, Dagens Industri.
Media: "Sweden faces Chinese blowback over Huawei ban", 21 January 2021, Politico.
Media: "Huaweis högkvarter hyllar Europa – men känslorna är obesvarade", 23 November 2020, Dagens Nyheter.
Media: "China Warns Sweden Against Taking Measures to Ban Huawei, ZTE", 22 October 2020, Albawaba.
Media: "Szwecja zakazuje sprzętu Huawei i ZTE w sieci 5G" 21 October 2020, Wyborcza.
Media: "No Huawei for bidders in Sweden's 5G auctions", 20 October 2020, Light Reading.
Publication: Who Controls Huawei? Implications for Europe. UI Paper 5/2020. Stockholm: UI.