(Newser)
– Britain’s government backed down on Tuesday in plans to give Chinese telecommunications company Huawei a limited role in the UK’s new high-speed mobile phone network in a move with wide implications for relations between London and Beijing. . Britain imposed the ban after the United States threatened to cut an intelligence swap deal due to concerns that the Huawei team could allow the Chinese government to infiltrate UK networks, according to the AP. UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden gave telecommunications operators until 2027 to remove Huawei equipment that is already on Britain’s 5G network. “This has not been an easy decision, but it is the right one,” he said, noting that by the end of this year, telecom operators should not buy any 5G equipment from Huawei.
In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought to balance economic and security pressures by agreeing to give Huawei a limited role in Britain’s so-called 5G network, excluding the company from the core components of the system and restricting its participation to 35% of the draft. But in addition to the diplomatic clash this caused with the US, Johnson was also under pressure from rebels in his own Conservative Party, who criticized China’s new Hong Kong security law and his treatment of ethnic Uighurs, as well as Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government. . For China, the way Britain has handled the Huawei problem is the main problem. “I suspect there is a feeling in Beijing that the Huawei queue has made China lose face,” says Oxford history professor Rana Mitter. “And this is one of the things that clearly does not go well with China.”
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