(Yicai Global) Feb 25 -- Banning Huawei will create a vacuum  that no one can fill in a timely fashion and may seriously push back  fifth-generation wireless technology deployments across Europe,  according to the head of a China-Austria business association.

Europeans would be thrown backward in crucial 5G technology in  terms of time and cost with Huawei, Prof. Georg Zanger, president of the  Austrian-Chinese Business Association, told state-backed Xinhua News  Agency.

"Nobody has provided a shred of hard evidence that the company  has done anything wrong, raising the question of whether this is  glorified protectionism hiding behind the banner of national security,"  said Zanger said in the opening speech at an event titled Huawei --  Inside & Outside.

The US has looked to exclude Huawei from its 5G development,  claiming the company's technology would compromise national and user  security. Huawei executives have refuted the claims on various  occasions.

The Austrian Chinese Business Association is a non-governmental  and non-profit organization established in Vienna in 2010 to promote  economic and trade exchanges between Austrian or European companies and  Chinese ones and to strengthen bilateral cultural exchanges and  cooperation.

Editor: William Clegg