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Sweden is banning Huawei and ZTE from its 5G networks

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Swedish regulators are banning the China-based tech companies Huawei and ZTE from constructing the infrastructure of Sweden’s 5G networks. The announcement follows previous bans this year against Huawei in the United States and the United Kingdom, fearing that the Chinese government-run companies will jeopardize their national securities if they construct their respective 5G high-speed networks.

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), announcing the news in a Tuesday press release, said that the four companies jockeying for licenses to build up 5G in the nordic country are prohibited from using equipment from Huawei and ZTE on national security grounds. According to the PTS, these updated conditions to receive a license was informed by assessments made by the Swedish Armed Forces and the Swedish Security Service.

“New installations and new implementation of central functions for the radio use in the frequency bands must not be carried out with products from the suppliers Huawei or ZTE,” the authority stated.

“The licence holder shall take necessary technical and organizational actions to safeguard that the radio use according to the licence does not cause harm to Sweden’s security,” the PTS added.

Understanding that some bidders for the license may already use products from both Chinese tech suppliers, the telecom authority added the caveat that license holders must phase out the reliance on such products.

“If existing infrastructure for central functions is to be used to provide services in the concerned frequency bands,” the press release said, “products from Huawei and ZTE must be phased out 1 January 2025 at the latest.”

Additionally, “if central functions are dependant of staff or functions placed in foreign countries,” the statement continued, “such dependencies must be phased out and, if necessary, be replaced by functions or staff placed in Sweden. This must be completed by 1 January 2025.”

According to the Associated Press, Huawei responded to the news, saying that it was “surprised and disappointed” by the change.

As for the rest of the European Union, a similar ban on Huawei appears less likely. Back in January, however, the European Union passed legislation that limits Huawei’s role on the continent and to make its 5G network more independent. The U.S. has been adamantly lobbying the E.U. to introduce a similar hard ban, but many E.U. member states have disagreed with how to tackle Huawei and 5G.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

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Report: Beijing’s military hacked U.S. nuclear firm before Hunter Biden aided Chinese bid to acquire it

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A bombshell report by Just the News explains that “U.S. officials were acutely aware that Beijing was trying to obtain America’s premiere nuclear reactor technology, including through illicit hacking, months before Hunter Biden and his business partners sought to arrange a quiet sale of an iconic U.S. reactor company to a Chinese firm, according to court records and national security experts.”

Hunter Biden attempted to assist CEFC China Energy to acquire Westinghouse, one of America’s most famous electricity and appliance brands, as well as its state-the-art AP1000 nuclear reactor.

Hunter began his work with the Chinese company in early 2016 – while Joe Biden was the sitting Vice President – memos show. According to a copy of the indictment, just 20 months earlier, his father’s Justice Department charged five members of a Chinese military hacking unit for breaching the company’s computer systems in search of intellectual property and internal strategy communications.

Just the News reports:

In May 2014, the five operatives of the People’s Liberation Army’s Unit 61398 were charged with hacking into the systems of six U.S.-based companies across different industrial sectors, including Westinghouse Electric Co., SolarWorld, United States Steel Corp., and a union. The attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, called the breach a classic case of “economic espionage.”

One operative gained access to Westinghouse’s computers in 2010 and “stole proprietary and confidential technical and design specifications related to pipes, pipe supports, and pipe routing” pertaining to the company’s advanced AP1000 nuclear reactor design, according to an indictment filed by the Department of Justice.

“Among other things, such specifications would enable a competitor to build a plant similar to the AP1000 without incurring significant research and development costs associated with designing similar pipes, pipe supports, and pipe routing systems,” the indictment reads.

Just the News notes that while there is no evidence at the moment that Hunter Biden was aware of or involved in the hacking efforts by the Chinese, documents previously released by Congress in the Biden impeachment inquiry show Hunter Biden wrote in one text message in 2017 that he believed one of the CEFC officials he worked with, Patrick Ho, was the “f—ing spy chief” of China.

Ho was later indicted in the U.S. and charged with corruption. Joe Biden’s brother James told the FBI he believed CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming had a relationship with China’s communist president.

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