Italy beefed up 'golden power' with Chinese 5G vendors in mind - source

(Reuters) - Italy has beefed up its "golden power" over the private sector partly due to concerns over the potential involvement of Chinese firms Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp in the development of 5G networks, a government source said on Friday.

On Thursday night, the government used an urgent legislative decree to strengthen its existing power to intervene in the private sector to defend national security and other national interests. The decree did not mention Huawei or ZTE.

However, the United States has lobbied Italy and other European allies to avoid Huawei equipment and to also pay close scrutiny to ZTE, alleging the vendors could pose a security risk. Both companies have strongly denied any such risk.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Mark Bendeich)