Merkel plan for Huawei 5G gear gets pushback in Germany from within her own ranks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to rule out a ban on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies have hit a wall of resistance in parliament.

While Britain and the European Union introduced policies that allow Huawei’s partial participation in 5G mobile networks, Merkel has failed to forge a compromise with lawmakers in her Christian Democratic-led bloc who want to ban the world’s biggest telecoms gear supplier, according to three officials familiar with the process. Attempts to reach an agreement last week failed and will be resumed later in February.

The stalemate reflects Merkel’s difficulty in asserting control in a stand-off that pits trade interests with China against security concerns raised by Washington and her own intelligence agencies.

Open dissent such as that over the 5G policy is uncommon in Merkel’s otherwise disciplined Christian Democratic Union. Since the 65-year-old former physicist announced over a year ago that she would not run for a fifth term, she has withdrawn from domestic politics and her agenda has at times been overshadowed by a power struggle to succeed her.

The security concerns over Beijing’s potential influence over Huawei are shared by many in her allied Social Democratic Party and in the Foreign Ministry. Yet the balancing act is proving difficult for Merkel and her government, which are torn between an allegiance for a traditional ally and the risk of antagonising and isolating Germany’s largest trading partner by shutting out Chinese technology.

“I call on us not to slip into a new form of bipolarity,” Merkel said in a speech last month in Berlin. “Rather we must try, with the results and experiences we have around multilateralism, to include a country like China and at least treat it on the same terms.”