Japan is reportedly thinking about blocking Huawei and ZTE too

Hot on the heels of the Australia ban it is now being reported that Japan is thinking of taking similar action.

This definitely needs to be filed under ‘unsubstantiated rumour’ at this stage, but is also far from inconceivable, given the current momentum acting against Chinese kit vendors. GB Times reported in English about a Japanese language story alleging the Japanese government is thinking of blocking Huawei and ZTE from bidding on public contracts for building information systems.

Last week Australia decided the risk of the Chinese state exploiting the presence of kit from Chinese vendors in telecoms networks to get up to no good was too great and decided to err on the side of caution. There has been no hard evidence published that this happens, and Huawei thinks it has become a scapegoat in a growing economic and political battle between China and the West, but Western governments are increasingly opting to shoot first and ask questions later.

Chinese state-run media has apparently questioned the validity of the report, apparently blissfully unaware how imperative it is to question the validity of anything published by state run media. Having said that it could well be nothing, but it seems very likely that other countries allied to the US will seriously consider a similar move.