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BRUSSELS, Jan. 29-- In defiance of pressure from the United States, the European Union (EU) did not ban Chinese technology firms such as Huawei in its guidelines on 5G security issued on Wednesday. The European Commission, the EU's executive, issued the non-binding guidelines -- agreed by 28 member states -- known as a "toolbox" for 5G security, where the EU sets out detailed mitigation plans for each of the identified risks and recommends a set of key strategic and technical measures. Despite intense lobbying and threats from the U.S. aiming to ban Chinese suppliers, particularly the leading global vendor Huawei, from participating in building 5G infrastructure, the EU did not name either China or any specific company. Instead, the EU guidelines resorted to urging member states to "apply relevant restrictions for suppliers considered to be high risk, including necessary exclusions to effectively mitigate risks for key assets," as well as "using for an adequate balance of suppliers at national level and avoid dependency on suppliers considered to be high risk," without naming or specifying which supplier is "high risk". The guidelines followed London's decision on Tuesday to allow Huawei playing a role in building the United Kingdom's 5G network, albeit with some restrictions. The U.S. administration has launched intensive diplomatic offensives against Huawei, urging -- sometimes with explicit threats on intelligence sharing -- its European allies to get rid of Huawei for good. | 
