As part of his recent moves to rally US allies to kowtow to America’s decision to shun 5G telecommunication equipment of Huawei Technologies Co., US Secretary of States, Mike Pompeo is now in the Netherlands.
At the U.S.-Dutch entrepreneurship conference, while impressing on Dutch authorities to shun Huawei, Pompeo claimed the US wants equal footing with China.
In a statement quoted by Reuters, Pompeo said:
“We’re very concerned that Western companies, American companies and others that enter the Chinese markets aren’t treated the same way that Chinese companies are treated when they enter those Western markets,” Pompeo said.
“It’s not open trade when a company can come here and invest in the Netherlands and when a Netherlands company wants to invest in their country they’ve got to submit their information to the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
“We’ve been clear: Our ask is that our allies and our partners and our friends don’t do anything that would endanger our shared security interests or restrict our ability to share sensitive information,” Pompeo said.
However, Foreign Minister Stef Blok, said the Netherlands will make its own decision but he hinted that A team of experts is looking into the safety considerations surrounding the 5G auction.”
The Netherlands will be making its decision known any time.
Since the US added Huawei to its ‘Entity List’, President Trump’s top staffers have rachet up their anti-China and Huawei campaign targeting major European powers.
Last week, Trump’s chief security adviser, John Bolton said the UK has not made a final decision to use Huawei’s network equipment. In the same vein, Pompeo made a veiled threat to Germany that the US could block Germany from accessing data from the US if they choose to work with Huawei.
