Will Huawei working on some of the highest-end tech in the EU turn into a security disaster?
We seriously doubt that any techie alive doesn't know this, but Huawei is banned in the US. The Chinese company recently got soft-banned in the EU too. But despite that, Huawei is still making Android phones... And high-end world-impacting tech of the future.
What do we mean by soft-ban? Well, that's related to the EU's way of handling said ban. Due to security concerns, the bloc ushered out a recommendation to all participating countries to ban Huawei. But, as we all know, recommendations aren't obligatory and therefore are subject to being completely ignored.
And this might be just what is happening across Europe, because as it turns out, Huawei is an active participant in an EU grant, meant to fund some of the largest tech breakthroughs of the future, as shared by the Financial Times. But besides the €4 million spent on funding the Chinese Giant, will the EU lose more than money in the end?
The Huawei Mate X3 is one of the company's latest smartphones, which is also a foldable. | Image credit - PhoneArena
Okay, in summary: Huawei is developing stuff for the EU, in the EU, while being banned from the EU. Wah-wah. And it is getting paid to do it too! The weirdest part of it all is that despite the ban being precisely due to security concerns, Huawei is developing tech in the following areas:
- AI
- 6G
- Cloud computing
- Quantum Sensing
- Connectivity
- Framework for autonomous driving
And if you are thinking that some of these sound like exactly the type of areas, where concerns over privacy may arise, then you are on the right track.
It is as if the company has been banned from being a part of the currently active systems, but allowed to be a part of the creation of the ones that are going to be used by the EU in the future? We can’t say if that is the case for sure, but it does seem like it.
Some EU officials have been shocked that this hasn’t raised any red flags thus far, but at least Huawei is appreciating the collaboration. Whether it will last — and what fruits it will bear — is something that only the future may tell us, though.
And in case you liked what you saw in the image above, you can check out PhoneArena's review of the Huawei Mate X3 here.
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