De Gucht has previously told member states he had gathered "solid evidence" that Beijing had supplied illegal subsidies to China’s largest network equipment manufacturers, Huawei Technologies and ZTE. He won backing, "in principle”, from fellow commissioners in May to formally open the case. He took a softer line last week, expressing “hope that the solution we found in the solar panels case will set the tone for [other cases]”.
Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent are all vying for a share of the China Mobile tender, which will entail building and servicing an estimated 200,000 4G base stations across China. Huawei and ZTE, which have repeatedly denied receiving illegal subsidies, are also competing. The results are expected in early September, although previous deadlines have slipped.
In January, Chinese diplomats complained to EU member states that De Gucht had demanded European companies receive at least a 30 percent share of China’s network equipment market in exchange for dropping his investigation. A spokesman for the commissioner suggested at the time that the Chinese had either misunderstood or misrepresented his views.
