LONDON: Britain changed its position on using China’s Huawei in its 5G network because of US sanctions, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday when asked about President Donald Trump’s comments that he was responsible.
“The reason for the UK’s change of position was the impact of the US sanctions which were announced in May.
“Those sanctions were like nothing we had ever seen before, and led to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) changing its assessments,” the spokesman told reporters.
“The US sanctions make it impossible for the NCSC to continue to guarantee the security of Huawei equipment in the future.”
China meanwhile warned Johnson on Wednesday that his decision to ban Huawei from the 5G network would cost Britain dearly in investment, casting the move as the result of politicised pressure from Trump.
Hours after Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be purged from the nascent 5G network by the end of 2027, Trump claimed credit for the decision and said that if countries wanted to do business with the United States they should block Huawei.
But China, whose US$15 tril (RM64 tril) economy is five times the size of Britain’s, warned the decision would hurt investment as Chinese companies had watched as London “dumped” the national telecoms champion.
“Now I would even say this is not only disappointing – this is disheartening,” Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming told the Centre for European Reform, adding that Britain had “simply dumped this company”.
“The way you are treating Huawei is being followed very closely by other Chinese businesses, and it will be very difficult for other businesses to have the confidence to have more investment,” he said.
As Britain prepares to cast off from the European Union, fears over the security of Huawei have forced New York-born Johnson to take sides in the rivalry between the United States and China.
In Beijing, the foreign ministry cast Britain as “a relatively small place” that was becoming subservient of the United States.
“Does the UK want to maintain its independent status or be reduced to being a vassal of the United States, be the US’ cat’s paw?” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. “The safety of Chinese investment in the UK is being greatly threatened.”
Britain has become increasingly reliant on Chinese imports. Some 9% of all goods imported into Britain in 2018 – worth US$54 bil – came from China, double the proportion from 15 years earlier.
But British companies have also invested increasingly in China. Between 2013 and 2018, they more than doubled their investment position in the world’s No2 economy, according to official British data. – July 15, 2020, Reuters
