Huawei to build $ 1.2 billion Cambridge facility as it faces an uncertain future in the UK

The nine-acre Cambridge facility will become the international headquarters for Huawei’s fiber optic communication business and create about 400 jobs, Huawei said in a press release.

Johnson had announced a 35% limit on Huawei’s participation in Britain’s 5G network, but it is under pressure from some lawmakers within his own party and the Trump administration to completely ban Huawei, arguing that the Chinese government could use Huawei for their own efforts, including espionage. .

Under Chinese law, Chinese companies can be ordered to act under the direction of Beijing. Huawei has consistently denied that it would help the Chinese government to spy, saying it is “100% employee-owned.”

The new campus and hundreds of new jobs also occur when the UK economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and millions claim unemployment benefits. In a statement, Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang touted what the new campus would do to the UK economy, saying he wants “to help enshrine the UK’s leading position in optoelectronics and promote UK technology to global scale. ”

Any future decisions on Huawei could weigh on the UK’s future relationship with the United States, as the two countries attempt to reach a post-Brexit trade deal. The Trump administration has been cracking down on Huawei, recently restricting its ability to manufacture and obtain semiconductor chips using American-made technology.

On Thursday, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that the UK should make a pro-American call to Huawei.

“One of the extraordinary things about 5G is that the West somehow only allowed this advantage, this superiority was earned,” Blair said at a Reuters event. “It is very difficult for us not to be with the United States in anything that touches the security of the United States.”