Sweden to ban Chinese firms
As a Sweden court is weighing a decision that could decide Huawei’s fate in the country, Chinese analysts warned that Sweden – along with other European countries – should be aware that a Huawei ban at the behest of the US may hurt their own companies and dampen their roles in the 5G sector.
China also begged Sweden not to ban The Chinese Companies and to avoid falling into a “US trap”. The begging has intensified as a verdict that will decide Huawei’s role in Sweden’s 5G market is looming.
In October last year, telecom regulator the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) banned the use of equipment from Huawei and ZTE by its telecom operators taking part in 5G auctions.
Huawei in January appealed against the decision, and a verdict is expected to come in the next few weeks, according to a Reuters report.
“It feels extremely strange that the PTS would make a decision almost overnight that excludes us from the Swedish market, just because we have our domicile in China.
It would of course be commercially devastating for Huawei not to always put our customers first and risk destroying the relationship we have built,” Kenneth Fredriksen, executive vice president at Huawei’s central east Europe and Nordic region, said in a statement on the company’s website in April.
After the Huawei fallout, Ericsson’s fate in China may be threatened, however Sweden knowing this fully well still went ahead to ban the Chinese firms such as Huawei from participating in the country’s 5G construction.
Chinese officials say that while Ericsson has been invited to participate in 5G equipment tests in China, that does not mean it will be chosen. Sweden has to carefully reconsidered its China policy.
Chinese officials have been repeatedly begging Sweden to Over turn its banning decisions and provide Chinese companies with a good business environment to avoid a negative impact on its profitability. Alternatively China has threatened bilateral economic and trade disruption as well as Swedish companies’ operations in China.
“If Ericsson loses the chance to stay in China, it will lose the experience field of the world’s most advanced 5G technology, and can only practice its technologies in second-rate scenarios, which will further dampen its ability,” said Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance.
According to Ericsson’s annual report, China contributed about 8.1 percent of its net sales in 2020, up from 7.0 percent in 2019. Sales in China rose 18.2 percent from 2019, while those in the US grew 6.2 percent year-on-year.
Sweden’s decision is largely due to various Chinese actions, which has been aggressively pressuring its South China Sea policy and aggression against India and persecution of Quighers and the Tibetan people. Also Sweden is wary of cooperation with Chinese firms such as Huawei citing national security concerns.
European countries are also cutting ties with Huawei because now they are working closely with the US to share workin the 6G era, and achieve win-win results in the sector.
The US has the technology strength to forge ahead in this area. Industry practitioners are aware of the US progress in telecommunications in 4G, 5G and even 6G.
However, China is trying to threaten European countries that banning move by Sweden will sever the long-standing cooperative relationship between China and Europe, and in particular it will avoid the possibility that the two will still engage in next-generation technology exchanges. Europeans are not at all impressed.
