A pedestrian walks past a Huawei store in Sydney, Australia, May 23, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

The Wall Street Journal's report that China may retaliate against Nokia and Ericsson if the EU bans Huawei is completely groundless and ill-intended fabricated news, aiming to undermine the benign China-EU relations, said China's Foreign Ministry.

The WSJ, citing an unnamed resource, reported that China's Ministry of Commerce is weighing export controls on Nokia and Ericsson's China-made products if the EU chooses to follow the US and bans Huawei. 

"This is a totally groundless, and maliciously fabricated news. It was made up by the newspaper with ulterior motives, " Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told the Global Times at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

Wang stressed that the cooked-up news is intended to sow discord in the good and cooperative China-EU relations. 

China has been holding a consistent and clear stance with regard to 5G. China will remain open for foreign telecom enterprises to participate in China's 5G market cooperation, including Nokia and Ericsson, as well as other Europe-based firms.

Nokia and Ericsson have won bids in the Chinese market, Wang noted, refuting certain countries' overuse of so-called national security notions which violate international trade rules in order to force out specific high-tech companies from specific countries.

Wang urged European nations to offer a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment for all businesses, including China's firms.