Dutch coalition parties say Huawei must be kept out of 5G network
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MPs from two of the four Dutch coalition parties – Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA) and Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) – have said they do not want Chinese telecoms company Huawei to be involved in rolling out 5G networks in the Netherlands.
This week, Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad said Chinese spies have stolen a large number of company secrets from chip machinery maker ASML. The report said that spies were highly placed R&D workers who were able to get away with source codes, software, price strategies and secret user manuals.
GroenLinks, the biggest Dutch opposition, said in February that Huawei should be excluded from the tender process because of security fears.
The Dutch government is currently trying to draw up a formal strategy to deal with Chinese economic interests.
Earlier this month, the Algemene Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD), the Dutch security service, warned about the risks of using Chinese equipment for crucial infrastructure and said digital attacks and espionage by countries such as China, Iran and Russia pose a real threat.
In the US Huawei has been accused of espionage on behalf of the Chinese authorities and is running into problems in several countries.
