China expresses concern, regrets India keeping out Huawei, ZTE from 5G trials

China has expressed concern and regret over the Indian government’s decision to bar the likes of Huawei and ZTE from participating in 5G trials, saying the move is unfair, discriminatory and harms the gear vendors’ “legitimate rights and interests”. “We noted relevant notification, and express concern and regret that Chinese telecommunications companies have not been permitted to conduct 5G trials with Indian Telecom Service Providers in India,” the Chinese embassy said in a statement on Wednesday.

The comment came a day after Huawei and ZTE were kept out of a list of applications approved by the government to participate in 5G trials, a clear signal that the two gear makers would not be a part of India’s 5G deployments as well. “Relevant Chinese companies have been operating in India for years, providing mass job opportunities and making contribution to India's infrastructure construction in telecommunications,” the statement said.



“To exclude Chinese telecommunications companies from the trials will not only harm their legitimate rights and interests, but also hinder the improvement of the Indian business environment, which is not conducive to the innovation and development of related Indian industries,” it added. China hoped that India would do more to enhance mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries, and provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory investment and business environment for market entities from all countries, including China, to operate and invest in India.

The Department of Telecommunication (DoT), on Tuesday, okayed applications of Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, Vodafone Idea Ltd and MTNL to tie up with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT for 5G trials. Initially in 2019, Airtel and Vodafone Idea had applied to partner with Huawei and ZTE in select circles. But following the Sino-India border tensions which erupted last year, telcos were asked to submit names of “priority vendor” partners. In that list, Airtel and Vodafone Idea went with European vendors.

Industry insiders said this was a way for the government to start the much-delayed trials without having to take an explicit decision on keeping Huawei and ZTE away amid border tensions with China. Reliance Jio, which currently works only with Samsung, has also applied to partner with Nokia and Ericsson besides the Korean company and also run trials on its own technology. Currently, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea source telecom equipment from both Huawei and ZTE.

But at least Airtel has been reducing its dependence on them by replacing the two with European vendors. By not allowing Huawei and ZTE to take part in the 5G trials, India has joined US and some of its allies in keeping the vendors out of 5G deployments, citing alleged cyber-snooping by the two companies on behalf of Beijing. Both Huawei and ZTE have denied any wrongdoing, saying there is no proof anywhere in the world to back up the allegations.