Since the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, Huawei has achieved a leading position on the markets of the Visegrád Group, both in terms of digital infrastructure and mobile devices. During Donald Trump’s presidency (2017-2021), the US authorities made extensive diplomatic efforts to eliminate Huawei from the European Union’s (EU) 5G infrastructure, pointing to political and intelligence threats and the company’s cooperation with the Communist Party of China. As a result of these actions, numerous bilateral declarations on 5G were adopted, also by the V4 countries (Poland and Slovakia). Simultaneously, the position of the EU has aggravated – its institutions began to put more emphasis on level playing field and reciprocity in economic relations. The report on the EU coordinated risk assessment, presented in October 2019, and the EU Toolbox, adopted in January 2020, highlighted the risks of cooperation with “untrustworthy suppliers.” This was a clear message to the company from Shenzhen that the political climate has deteriorated.

Read the original article: https://warsawinstitute.org/huawei-poland-hungary-part-5g/

The following podcast is a part of the project “The Role and Influence of the People’s Republic of China on Visegrad Group Countries” funded by the International Visegrad Fund.

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