Chinese telecom giant Huawei could face additional sanctions for its ties to Russia.
Over the past few years, the Chinese corporation has faced accusations of spying on its clients via backdoors in its hardware, theft of personal data, and industrial espionage. As a result, Huawei was banned from supplying 5G equipment to a number of countries around the world, with some even calling for a boycott of the company’s products.
Due to Western restrictions, Huawei has switched its focus to Russia and African countries. The Chinese company was involved in modernization of the telecommunications infrastructure in Crimea. Now, Huawei could aid Russia on a much larger scale.
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, a telecoms expert at the European Centre for International Political Economy, said that Russia “ripped out Western telecom gear in the heavily militarized territory and replaced it with Huawei and ZTE.” If Nokia and Ericsson do fully exit Russia, Moscow would “need Chinese companies more than ever, especially Huawei”, he said.
However, it could make the company a target for more Western sanctions.
