The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the country's top telecom industry regulator, said earlier this month that it welcomes foreign enterprises to actively participate in China's 5G network construction and application promotion.

Markus Borchert, president of Nokia China, said in a reply to China Daily that "The cooperation with multi-national companies is highly recognized by the Chinese government, which makes us more confident in the healthy, steady and sustainable development of China's 5G industry."

His comments were echoed by Lv Tingjie, a professor at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Lv said China welcomes competition in 5G rollout, for it knows well that competition from foreign companies helps lower costs.

"That contrasts the attitude of the US government, which banned Chinese companies from its 5G network deployment," Lv said, adding that China's sprawling multi-billion telecom market will bring big opportunities to foreign companies.

China granted four licenses to telecom carriers on June 6, marking the official kick off of the 5G era in the country. It also marked an accelerated push by China to apply 5G, for its previous plan was to commercialize the technology in 2020.