Australia may implement ban on Huawei 5G equipment

The Australian Government is currently considering the implementation of a ban that would prevent the Chinese telco from supplying 5G equipment to the nation.

The ban would be based on national security, with the politicians claiming the firms is controlled by Beijing.

“Both Huawei and ZTE must report to a Communist Party cell at the top of their organisations,” Michael Danby, a Labour MP, told Federal Parliament.

“Let me issue a clarion call to this Parliament: Australians 5G network must not be sold to these telcos.”

Huawei has responded to these claims, stating that it is a privately-owned company.

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The company has appealed to Canberra, asking the capital not to place the ban as it would have “huge significance” for local business and market competition.

“It would have huge significance for Huawei in Australia because at the moment most of our business is 4G and we are providing over 55 per cent of Australia’s 4G requirement across the whole nation,” the Financial Times reported John Lord, Chairman of Huawei Australia, stating.

“Huawei is owned by employees,” Lord added. “We have 170,000 employees in the world but it’s only owned by 80,000 because we haven’t got enough shares.”

“There is no ownership by the Government whatsoever – we would term our form of ownership a cooperative in western societies.”