China firmly opposes Huawei ban by some EU countries

China firmly opposes some EU countries' ban on Huawei and said the European Commission has no legal basis nor factual evidence to prohibit the Chinese telecom giant, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Thursday urged more EU countries to join the 10 that have restricted or banned China's Huawei and ZTE from their 5G telecoms networks, citing risks to the bloc's collective security.

He said both companies will also be banned from EU-funded programmes.

Huawei has criticised the move saying this was not based on a verified, transparent, objective and technical assessment of 5G networks.

Several countries including Germany have been slow to implement the EU's security measures for 5G networks agreed three years ago to curb the use of "high risk vendors" (HRV) such as Huawei due to concerns about possible sabotage or espionage.

Telecom operators across Europe have been using Huawei gear because they were cheaper than rivals and works as good, making it difficult for companies to choose costlier options.

Publicly singling out an individual entity as HRV without legal basis is against principles of free trade, a Huawei spokesperson said.

"As an economic operator in the EU, Huawei holds procedural and substantial rights and should be protected under the EU and Member States’ laws as well as their international commitments," the person said.