The EU Commission sees Chinese dominance in information technology as a potential security risk for Europe. Ninety percent of all IT equipment would be manufactured in Asia, China would control most of the raw materials needed to manufacture IT equipment, EU Security Commissioner Julian King said today in Munich.
According to King, China also invests a multiple of the sums spent on artificial intelligence in Europe. „Such a level of dependency creates risks,“ said the British politician at a cyber conference in the run-up to the Munich Security Conference this weekend.
Indirect criticism of Huawei
Also in the dispute over a participation of the Chinese IT supplier Huawei in the construction of the European 5G networks King suggested skeptical tones. „In my view, it is high time for Europe to make some decisions.“ So it should be discussed whether it makes sense, if individual European countries, the construction of the 5G network individual companies leave, said King.
The Security Commissioner did not name Huawei by name in this passage, but the Chinese group is the world leader in network equipment. King generally called for closer European cybersecurity cooperation: „We need to go further than before and be faster,“ the Briton said.
The United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries have now excluded Huawei from safety-related telecom networks in whole or in part because of security concerns. The reason: Based on the Chinese Secret Service Act, every citizen and every organization can be required to disclose information. The federal government had already blocked the entry of the state-owned Chinese power grid company SGCC into the German power grid last summer.
