US Ambassador to Berlin vehemently criticizes German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier after he suggested a parallel between Chinese and American espionage in what analysts consider to be an escalation of the conflict between the two Western allies over the company. Huawei.
Germany has recently decided not to ban the Chinese giant from taking part in its 5G mobile network, despite warnings from Washington officials that Huawei poses a major security risk. The critical statements of the US diplomat come in the context in which a new poll indicates a significant difference between the opinions of the Americans and the Germans regarding the relations between the USA and Germany.
But how did the scandal start? During a recent televised debate on Huawei, Minister Altmaier recalled the 2013 scandal involving the surveillance of NATO allies by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). The revelations at the time, which hampered President Barack Obama's administration, indicated that the NSA had spied on Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor.
Altmaier said that despite the NSA scandal, "Germany has not imposed a boycott" on the United States, adding that the Washington government "also calls on its companies to provide certain information needed to fight terrorism." (https://twitter.com/thorstenbenner/status/1198720448839725058)
His comment was a clear criticism of US fears that Huawei, the world leader in next-generation mobile technology, would send sensitive data to the Chinese government and that the company had links not only to the Chinese Communist Party but also to the Beijing secret services. (Although China is Germany's largest trading partner, German intelligence officials have advised Merkel's government to ban Huawei from participating in Germany's 5G network).
Responding to statements made by Minister Altmaier, US Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell told FoxNews (https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-ambassador-germany-china-comparison-insult) that " there is no moral equivalence between China and the United States, and anyone who suggests this ignores history. "
Ambassador Grenell said that equating the US government's action with that of the Chinese Communist Party was "an insult to the thousands of American soldiers helping to secure Germany and the millions of Americans dedicated to a strong Western alliance." an insult to millions of Chinese citizens who are being denied basic freedoms and wrongfully imprisoned by the Communist Party. " A similar comment was posted on the Twitter account of the US Embassy in Berlin.
The BBC News website reports that after World War II, the United States maintained a large military presence in Germany, currently having 35,000 troops in the European country. About 17,000 American civilians and 12,000 German civilians work for the US military in Germany.
Differences between allies
The comments of the German minister and the reply of the American ambassador come in the context in which a new opinion poll indicates a big difference between the opinions of the citizens of the two countries regarding the US-Germany relations. Three-quarters of Americans surveyed in the Pew Research Center / Körber-Stiftungs survey said they were optimistic about the state of affairs between the two countries and wanted the US to cooperate more with Germany in the future.
On the other hand, almost two-thirds of Germans say that relations between Washington and Berlin are bad.
A recent US and German opinion poll showed that 85% of Americans surveyed said that US military bases in Germany were important for US national security. But only 52% of Germans considered them equally important for the security of their country.
The results of this poll, analysts believe, reflect the changing perception of public opinion in Germany towards the United States, which took place after Donald Trump won the US presidency. If Barack Obama enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the Germans when he was the leader of the White House and had excellent relations with Merkel, the same cannot be said about Trump.
For example, since coming to power in 2017, the current Republican leader has always criticized Germany for its insufficient spending on the NATO budget, threatening to change its policies on the US military presence in the region, but also for Berlin's too close relationship with Russia. . In the latter case, the United States has said that Germany is showing "strategic blindness" over support for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, through which Russia wants to export natural gas to Germany through two pipelines below the Baltic Sea.
Ukraine, which is currently one of the major transit routes for Russian gas to Europe, will be the big loser (as will Poland). Washington opposes the plan, which has huge geopolitical ramifications - Kiev and Warsaw are America's key allies in the region - and will increase Europe's dependence on Russia's energy resources.
Merkel, who acknowledges that there will be negative consequences for Ukraine, has always spoken of Nord Stream 2 as a purely commercial project. Experts believe that this naive rhetoric is contrary to the geostrategic implications of the project.
Finally, as I explained on other occasions (https://www.g4media.ro/de-ce-au-disparut-merkel-si-germania-de-pe-scena-mondiala.html), the results of the survey opinion indicates the exaggerated anti-Americanism of German public opinion, exacerbated especially after Trump came to power. German politicians, especially from the left of the political ladder, and the German press constantly describe the American leader as a global threat, but this attitude has negative consequences for the relationship between the two countries.
Huawei, security risk?
As for Huawei, the position of US officials is clear: the Chinese telecommunications company is a threat to national security, and any ally who does not respect this opinion will have to bear the consequences.
We recall that Huawei Technologies came to international attention late last year after Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company's founder and head of the company's finance department, was arrested in Canada at the request of US authorities on suspicion of violating the embargo. imposed on Iran by the Washington Administration.
The arrest of Huawei's founder's daughter has rekindled talks about the Chinese telecommunications giant, its ties to the Beijing Communist Party and security concerns it has raised in many Western capitals.
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a Chinese telecommunications company founded in 1987 by Zhengfei, a former engineer enlisted in the People's Liberation Army. Headquartered in the Shenzhen metropolis of southern Guangdong Province, the company has 180,000 employees and manufactures products such as smartphones, tablets, fixed and mobile broadband networks, and more.
Huawei is the world's largest provider of telecommunications network equipment and the world's second largest smartphone maker, with revenues of about $ 92 billion in 2017. Unlike other similar companies in China, Huawei conducts much of its business abroad, being the market leader in many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Huawei claims to be a private company and describes itself as owned by its employees, although its exact ownership structure is unknown. Ren Zhengfei, who joined the Communist Party in 1978, has an estimated fortune of $ 3.4 billion.
Huawei was one of the first telecommunications equipment suppliers at a time when China was investing heavily in modernizing its networks, importing much of its equipment. The company started competing internationally in the 1990's and was known for offering much lower prices than competing companies.
Many rival companies claim that Huawei provides equipment copied from them at low prices. In fact, some of these companies, including Cisco Systems and Motorola, have taken legal action, accusing Huawei of stealing trade secrets.
What is certain is that the Chinese company has spent a lot of money on research and development and is now considered a world leader in the technology of telecommunications networks and state-of-the-art smartphones. In contrast, its major Western rivals, such as Nokia and Ericsson, have experienced major financial difficulties in recent years. Huawei is currently expanding into new areas, including chip development, artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
A few years ago, Huawei began working on the development of advanced security technologies with the Public Security Bureau in the Xinjiang region of western China. The area has become a pilot for advanced population surveillance and control techniques. Chinese authorities have spent significant funds to turn Xinjiang into a technology testing area for facial recognition, digital monitoring and artificial intelligence, all of which are used in policing.
Chinese law requires Chinese companies to "support, cooperate and cooperate in the national intelligence business" as required by Beijing, which has caused concern in the West.
However, Huawei has consistently denied having "inappropriate" ties to the Chinese government or collecting data on behalf of the communist regime, saying it is an independent company. Critics, however, wonder how much independence Beijing would allow for a company that is a crucial component of the communist country's telecommunications infrastructure.
In 2012, Huawei and ZTE Corp., another Chinese telecommunications company that produces smartphones, were the target of an investigation in the United States that verified whether their equipment could pose a threat to US interests. A report from the Washington Congress concluded that "Huawei did not fully cooperate with the investigation and did not want to explain its relationship with the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party, while there is credible evidence that the company does not comply with US law."
Western authorities fear that these technologies, developed for authoritarian purposes in China, could be transferred to their countries in various forms, endangering national security.
U.S. intelligence officials say Huawei's smartphones and networking equipment could be used for undercover espionage, referring in particular to the next generation of advanced 5G technology.
In fact, in early 2018, mobile operators Verizon Communications and AT&T in the United States gave up the idea of distributing Huawei smartphones in the US market. Similar measures have been taken by other US allies.
Sources: FoxNews, BBC, Twitter