EU Draft Law Sets 36-Month Clock to Remove Huawei/ZTE Equipment From Critical Infrastructure

Tech moves this sweeping echo the 1950–1994 CoCom export controls that barred Western companies from selling strategic technology to the Soviet bloc; both episodes frame security as supply-chain exclusion rather than diplomacy. The proposal sits at the intersection of two long arcs: a 15-year drift toward techno-nationalism that began with the 2013 Snowden leaks and a decoupling trend accelerated by Washington’s 2022 Huawei/ZTE ban. By codifying what was once a patchwork of national rules, Brussels signals a shift from market-led integration to regulatory sovereignty, even at the cost of billions in sunk hardware and slower 5G/6G and solar roll-outs. Whether this pivot proves lasting will hinge on future evidence of Chinese espionage and the EU’s ability to cultivate domestic or allied suppliers; otherwise, historians may view it—like the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal of 1987—as a politically driven pause rather than a permanent realignment in the century-long story of global technology networks.