A logo is displayed on a Huawei NetEngine 8000 Intelligent Metro Router during a 5G event in London on February 20, 2020.
Isabel INFANTES | AFP
President Donald Trump did not directly influence the UK government’s decision to ban Huawei equipment from its 5G networks, a British minister said on Wednesday.
“We all know Donald Trump, don’t we?” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News. “All kinds of people can try to claim credit for the decision, but this was based on a technical evaluation by the National Center for Cyber Security.”
Hancock was answering a question about Trump’s comments on the policy change. The American leader said Tuesday that it was he who convinced countries like Britain to block Huawei.
“We convinced many countries, many countries, I did it myself for the most part, not to use Huawei, because we believe it is an insecure security risk, it is a great security risk,” Trump said, according to Reuters.
Trump may not be able to take full credit for the UK abandoning Huawei from its rollout of super-fast 5G mobile networks. But it is his administration’s introduction of new sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications company that officials said ultimately led to a change in policy.
Huawei was allowed a restricted role in the UK 5G launch in January. At the time, the government believed that it could manage the risks associated with Huawei by excluding the company from the “core” sensitive parts of its network infrastructure.
But U.S. trade restrictions mean that Huawei can no longer obtain key chip components from trusted U.S. vendors. In the eyes of the UK, this would lead to security and reliability issues with Huawei as it would have to find alternative chip providers.
The change in the London rule means that cell phone operators will now be forced to stop purchasing new Huawei 5G equipment by the end of the year. They will also be required to remove the Chinese firm’s kit from their infrastructure by 2027.
UK-China relations
While the move was good news for the Trump administration, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that it “promotes transatlantic security,” the Chinese-backed media have called for retaliation.
The Global Times wrote that Beijing should react, “otherwise wouldn’t we be too easy to intimidate?” The newspaper said such retaliation should be “public and painful,” although it did not describe any specific actions.
Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, called the decision “disappointing and wrong.”
“It has become questionable whether the UK can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from other countries,” he tweeted.
It comes after tensions between Britain and China increased this month over new national security laws imposed in Hong Kong. London offered 3 million Hong Kong residents a path to British citizenship, a move Liu said “constitutes serious interference in China’s internal affairs.”
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