The President of Nokia’s mobile networks unit, Tommi Uitto, has described how high-ranking Chinese officials are threatening to ban Western suppliers in the name of national security. He has encouraged European leaders to do the same and enforce a bloc-wide ban on Chinese vendors. Nokia is suffering from the slowing pace of rip-and-replace programs in Europe and is seizing the moment to grow its business share in Europe. “We have been told verbally by high-ranking officials, when we have asked whether it is true that Western manufacturers are being excluded from your market in the name of national security, the answer was yes. That is a pretty drastic statement,” Uitto told Finnish newspaper Talouselämä. “We are being shut out of…