‘No blanket ban’: France won’t prevent Huawei from investing in country, finance minister says

France will not ban China’s Huawei from investing in the country, Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday. Paris is making the decision in contrast to Britain which has decided to purge the firm’s equipment from its 5G network by 2027, Reuters said.

There is “no blanket ban” on Huawei in France, Le Maire told France Info radio. “We won’t ban Huawei from investing in 5G, we will protect our national security interests,” the minister said, adding that he had reaffirmed France’s position to Chinese authorities on Monday.

However, Le Maire condemned Beijing’s alleged abuses against the country’s minority Muslim population, saying they were “unacceptable.”

On July 16, Beijing invited US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to come to China and visit Xinjiang “to see for himself that there are no human rights violations against the region’s Uighur Muslim minority.”