Huawei’s placement on the U.S. government’s
Entity List is widely seen as intended to
persuade resistant U.S. allies in Europe to
exclude Huawei equipment from their next-
generation wireless networks, known as 5G.
Responding to a question about whether it
would be best for all 5G devices sold in the U.S.
to have been made outside of China, Chinese
foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said
Americans seemed to be conjuring up non-
existent threats.
“I want to tell individuals in the U.S. that
they have been living in a panic made by
themselves, and they have reached a state
of extreme nervousness in which they even
apprehend danger in every sound,” Geng said.
Globalization has brought an “unprecedented”
level of division of labor across borders and
societies, reducing the significance of where
products are manufactured and assembled,
Geng said.
“Against such a backdrop, any attempt to
achieve ‘absolute security and controllability’
by isolating oneself is nothing but fool’s talk,”
Geng said.
China has responded to U.S. pressure by saying
it would issue a list of “unreliable entities”
targeting companies that “violated market
principles” and cut supplies of components to
Chinese businesses for non-commercial reasons.
Beijing has also suggested it might limit
exports of rare earths, minerals such as lithium
that are used in many products including
cellphones, electric vehicles and the batteries
that run them.