26 Nov 2018

Open letter urges govt intervention over 'Chinese intimidation'

From Morning Report, 7:35 am on 26 November 2018

The United States has asked telecommunications providers in countries it is allies with to avoid using equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei. Earlier this month the company partnered with Spark for a trial mobile 5G rollout - but has promised it won't bid for major aspects of New Zealand's wider rollout of the system. Australia banned both Huawei and ZTE from its 5G networks over security concerns. But Huawei already has a significant stake in New Zealand with Vodafone, Spark and 2Degrees all having been supplied by the company. It also promised to invest $400 million in telecommunications research in New Zealand just last year. National Party Leader Simon Bridges was minister for economic development at the time. He joins us now.