Germany's cyber security agency said claims that Huawei spied on its customers were not supported by any evidence and urged caution against a possible boycott of the Chinese telecoms giant. "For decisions as serious as a ban, you need evidence,” Arne Schoenbohm, director of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), told the weekly Der Speigel. Huawei faces accusations that it is linked to China's secret services, and countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand have already excluded the company from participating in the construction of 5G networks. According to Der Spiegel, the United States is encouraging other countries, including Germany, to do the same.

There is no evidence

In March, Arne Schenbohm told the telecommunications company Telekom that “there are currently no conclusive findings”, which would confirm the warnings of the US secret services regarding Huawei. The main mobile operators in Germany, Vodafone, Telekom and Telefónica all use Huawei equipment in their networks. The BSI has tested Huawei equipment and visited the company's security lab in Bonn, and Arne Schoenbohm says there is no evidence the company is using its products to obtain sensitive information.

Huawei also denies these accusations. "We have never been asked anywhere to install a backdoor designed to obtain sensitive information. There is no law that compels us to do this, we have never done it and we will not do it,” a company spokesperson said.

Huawei is the world's second-largest smartphone maker, and security agencies say the company's presence in the West poses a security threat. Japan, following talks with the United States, announced last week that it was halting government purchases of equipment from Huawei. The UK is the only Five Eyes country that continues to allow Huawei equipment on its 5G networks. After a meeting with the Cyber ​​Security Center last week, Huawei pledged to make some technical improvements so that the use of its products would not be banned.