Unfair treatment of Huawei could damage Japan ties: China

Bloomberg

Japan’s restrictions on Chinese technology could damage bilateral ties, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman said in a warning that comes as the US has been pushing its allies to bar Huawei equipment from telecommunications networks as a security threat.
Japan is preparing to announce the allocation of bandwidth for 5G communications next month and the tension over telecommunications with China has posed problems for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. His government is seeking to rebuild long fractious ties with Beijing and also reliant on the US for its defense.
Abe’s government has been careful not to single out Chinese companies for public criticism. But a December report from Japanese public broadcaster NHK said a change to regulations announced that month will effectively exclude China’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp from Japanese government procurement.
“If the Japanese government’s approach is obviously unfair, it will definitely shake the confidence of mutual trust and business cooperation between the two countries and undermine the momentum of improvement and development of bilateral relations,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng told reporters. He said he was already aware of damage to Huawei and ZTE in Japan.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that Tokyo is not calling for specific countries or companies to be excluded from procurement. “Ties between
Japan and China have returned to a normal path and are beginning to develop further. The government wants to elevate the relationship to a new level through frequent high-level visits,” Suga said.
After inheriting a relationship at its most hostile in decades when he took the helm in 2012 amid a territorial dispute, Abe last year became the first Japanese PM to pay an official visit to China since 2011. He hopes to welcome President Xi Jinping to Japan for the Group of 20 leading nations summit in June in what would be the Chinese leader’s first visit since taking office.

Security Risks
Japan’s three largest mobile carriers have banned Huawei and ZTE equipment from their base stations, Kyodo News reported in December.
The Nikkei newspaper also said in December that the Japanese government was planning to call on businesses in 14 sectors including water, gas and air transportation, to avoid buying communications equipment seen as posing security risks.
US officials have been pressuring allies to avoid Huawei equipment, citing security concerns.
Huawei has denied wrongdoing and repeated that it doesn’t provide spying back doors for the Chinese government.
The UK, which is also preparing to roll out 5G services, criticised Huawei in a report for failing to address security risks.
The introduction of 5G will provide a huge leap forward in speed, capacity and connectivity.

Huawei profit jumps 25%
Bloomberg

Huawei Technologies Co earnings surged 25 percent last year as the Chinese telecommunications giant rose up the ranks of the global smartphone market.
China’s largest tech company by sales posted net income of $8.8 billion in 2018, according to a statement. Revenue for the year jumped almost 20 percent to 721 billion yuan.
Despite being at the center of global scrutiny, Huawei is winning customers for its networking gear as it contends with Apple Inc for the mantle of world’s No. 2 smartphone label.
The company has already disclosed accelerated growth in the first two months of 2019 as
it develops cutting-edge chips and expands into cloud services. But its global prospects have been clouded by the Trump administration, which is waging a campaign to block the Shenzhen-based company from supplying equipment for 5G mobile networks.
After years of tension and accusations that the company makes it possible for Beijing to spy on the West, pressure on the Huawei has ratcheted up.