Brazil ditches US drive to strangle Huawei: report
Trump administration’s move fails, decision makers return to business
By Chu Daye
Published: Jan 17, 2021 10:00 PM
The telecommunications sector will see a back-to-square-one moment, in which business considerations regain their rightful position from political considerations, Chinese analysts said on Sunday, after reports that the Brazilian government became the first in the world to backtrack on its opposition to Huawei's 5G bid.
The Brazil will not seek to bar the Chinese telecommunication giant from its 2021 5G network auctions in June, Reuters reported, citing local newspaper Estado de S. Paulo.
Financial costs potentially worth billions of dollars and the exit of US President Donald Trump are forcing President Jair Bolsonaro, who had opposed Huawei on unproven grounds, to backtrack on his opposition to Huawei's bid, the paper said.
Chinese analysts said the reported move is significant as it makes Brazil the first country to change its stance on Huawei after Trump's election loss.
Fu Liang, a Beijing-based telecom industry expert, told the Global Times on Sunday that as Trump leaves the White House and the US failed in its promise to provide badly needed vaccines to Brazil, which has been hit hard by the virus, Brazil's committed pro-US stance naturally did not materialize.
Brazil has the second-highest COVID-19 death toll after the US, and the government is being criticized for a slow vaccination process.
Brazil's reported move to allow Huawei to bid is a setback for the Trump administration's so-called "Clean Network" scheme, for which it painstakingly lobbied around the world, coercing and luring countries to shun Chinese high-tech companies. The Brazilian development indicates the Trump administration's campaign to smear and exclude Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is likely to fail globally, analysts said.
"Without the stick-and-carrot approach of the Trump administration, more countries will fall back to a neutral stance after they ventured to move against Huawei," Fu said.
Fu Liang, a Beijing-based telecom industry expert, told the Global Times on Sunday that as Trump leaves the White House and the US failed in its promise to provide badly needed vaccines to Brazil, which has been hit hard by the virus, Brazil's committed pro-US stance naturally did not materialize.
Brazil has the second-highest COVID-19 death toll after the US, and the government is being criticized for a slow vaccination process.
Brazil's reported move to allow Huawei to bid is a setback for the Trump administration's so-called "Clean Network" scheme, for which it painstakingly lobbied around the world, coercing and luring countries to shun Chinese high-tech companies. The Brazilian development indicates the Trump administration's campaign to smear and exclude Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is likely to fail globally, analysts said.
"Without the stick-and-carrot approach of the Trump administration, more countries will fall back to a neutral stance after they ventured to move against Huawei," Fu said.
