Trade tensions between the United States and China have sent a shiver across Southeast Asia, a region that depends heavily on both sides for its economic health, but when it comes to 5G, many countries have shrugged off a U.S. ban on Chinese telecommunications equipment.
Their responses to Washington's sanctions on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. vary in line with their different levels of economic development, their aims in deploying next-generation 5G networks, and the state of their political relations with the U.S. and China.
What has made it difficult for countries to ignore Huawei is not only its edge in the development of 5G but also the fact that it has in recent years cultivated strong and close business ties with many countries in Southeast Asia.