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The defense committee of the British parliament said on Thursday that it had found clear evidence that the telecommunications giant Huawei had colluded with the Chinese state and said the UK may need to remove all Huawei equipment earlier than planned.
FILE PHOTO: Huawei’s headquarters building is displayed in Reading, UK, on July 14, 2020. REUTERS / Matthew Childs / File Photo
LONDON: The defense committee of the British parliament said on Thursday that it had found clear evidence that telecoms giant Huawei had colluded with the Chinese state and said the UK may need to remove all Huawei equipment earlier than planned.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July ordered Huawei equipment to be purged from the nascent 5G network by the end of 2027. US President Donald Trump took credit for the British decision.
“The West must come together urgently to promote a counterweight to China’s technological dominance,” said Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defense committee. “We must not give up our national security for the sake of short-term technological development.”
The committee did not elaborate on the exact nature of the ties, but said it had seen clear evidence of Huawei’s collusion with “the apparatus of the Communist Party of China.”
Huawei said the report lacked credibility.
“It is based on opinion rather than fact. We are confident that people will see through these unfounded allegations of collusion and will remember instead what Huawei has provided Britain over the past 20 years,” said a spokesman for Huawei.
Trump identifies China as America’s main geopolitical rival and has accused the Communist Party-ruled state of profiting from trade and failing to tell the truth about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which he calls the “plague of China.”
Washington and its allies say Huawei’s technology could be used to spy for China. Huawei has repeatedly denied it, saying the United States is simply jealous of its success.
British ministers say the rise to global dominance of Huawei, founded in 1987 by a former People’s Liberation Army engineer, has caught the West off guard.
The defense committee said it supported Johnson’s decision to eventually purge Huawei from 5G, but noted that “developments may require this date to advance, potentially to 2025, which could be considered economically feasible.”
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Jack Stubbs; edited by Kate Holton)
