Beijing has warned the European Union that it is ready to take tough retaliatory measures if Brussels adopts legislation to ban the use of telecommunications equipment from Huawei Technologies. China’s mission to the EU in Brussels has demanded that the European Commission remove wording from draft documents that would classify Chinese products as cybersecurity threats and label Chinese vendors as high‑risk suppliers. The escalation underscores a growing likelihood of a large‑scale trade confrontation.

The initiative by European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkunen aims to create legal mechanisms obliging member states to fully exclude Huawei and ZTE equipment from national telecom infrastructures. Measures proposed under the EU cybersecurity law are directive in nature — effectively converting the non‑binding 2020 5G security recommendations into strict regulatory requirements for all participants in the single European market.

Beijing has explicitly warned it may launch economic investigations against European corporations if the new rules force operators to dismantle already-installed network nodes. Implementing such threats could inflict critical damage on the operational activities of EU businesses in the Chinese market. While the United Kingdom and several European countries have already independently restricted Huawei’s presence in sensitive sectors, an EU‑wide ban risks triggering a full‑scale tech war and disrupting global supply chains.