Oct 16, 2020

TOKYO — Japan informed the United States that Tokyo, at the moment, won’t participate in Washington’s plan to exclude Chinese firms from telecommunications networks, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday, citing several sources.

Japan will take its own steps to respond in case there are worries over security issue, while Tokyo will cooperate with the United States, the paper said.

The U.S. State Department published in August an update of a plan called the “Clean Network” calling for telecom companies, cloud service providers, and mobile apps of Chinese origin to be kept out of the United States.

Washington is pressing allies to bar Huawei from next generation 5G networks on security grounds.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned the clean network plan when he met Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Tokyo earlier this month, the Yomiuri said.

Japan told the United States that Tokyo can’t join the framework which excludes a specific nation but will reconsider if there is any change to the current U.S. plan, according to the report. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)