U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany February 15, 2020. REUTERS/Andreas Gebert
MUNICH (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Saturday that Washington was working with technology companies in the United States and allied nations to develop alternatives to Chinese 5G vendors and was already testing them at U.S. military bases.
“We are encouraging allied and U.S. tech companies to develop alternative 5G solutions and we are working alongside them to test these technologies at our military bases as we speak,” Esper said at the Munich Security Conference.
“Developing our own secure 5G networks will outweigh any perceived gains from partnering with heavily subsidized Chinese providers that answer to party leadership.”.
Reporting by John Irish and Paul Carrel; Editing by Edmund Blair