Huawei omitted from Czech Republic hardware tender over security fears
Last year, Czech cyber watchdog had warned network operators against using products supplied by Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE
Huawei and ZTE have been barred from two public tenders for communications systems in the Czech Republic on security grounds.
The tenders are worth seven million crowns (£240,000), according to Czech news outlet Denikn, and were launched last month by the airport management. One of these tenders is for delivering servers for CCTV, while the other one is for supplying additional security equipment.
China's Hikvision has also been placed this week on US blacklists over its role in human rights violations against Uyghur people in China's north-eastern Xingjiang province.
After receiving the bids from various companies, the airport management assessed the potential risks associated with all the offers, and reached the conclusion that there were major security concerns associated with both Huawei's and ZTE's hardware.
In December last year, the Czech Republic's cyber watchdog warned network operators in the country against using hardware or software supplied by the two Chinese networking giants, warning that they posed a threat to national security.
"China's laws ... require private companies residing in China to cooperate with intelligence services, therefore introducing them into the key state systems might present a threat," Dusan Navratil, director of the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NCISA), said at that time.
NCISA added that its warning was based on its own findings as well as on those of its allies. The agency also advised systems administrators in critical information infrastructure in the country to take appropriate steps to mitigate the threat, should they have any Huawei or ZTE hardware running on their networks.
In March, Daniel Bagge, Prague's cyber attaché to Washington, told Reuters that NCISA was never pressurised by the US or any other country into issuing its warning against Huawei. In fact, the warning took the US by surprise, Bagge claimed.
The US government has been urging its allies for several months not to purchase the equipment manufactured by Huawei, claiming that they could help Chinese government agencies in running espionage operations against western countries.
Last year, New Zealand's intelligence agency turned down the request of a telecom firm to use Huawei equipment in its 5G network, citing national security concerns. That followed a similar decision by authorities in Australia.
In May, the US Commerce Department put Huawei in its "Entity List" after Trump declared a national emergency over threats to US technology, the companies have also effectively been banned from US communications networks. The decision barred Huawei from doing any business with US firms without getting a special licence from the US government.
Following the ban, Google announced that it was withdrawing Huawei's Android OS licence. Intel, Qualcomm and other American tech firms also stopped supplying the Chinese firm with components.
The US government quickly backtracked, granting Huawei a new 90-day licence to continue operate in the US, renewing it until November when that licence expired.
Despite that relaxation, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei admitted that US sanctions will hit his company harder and will cut revenues by about $30 billion.