Grave concerns over involving Chinese firm in upgrade of UK mobile network

THE DEFENCE Secretary has admitted to having “very deep concerns” about the Chinese technology firm Huawei being involved in upgrading the UK’s mobile network.

Gavin Williamson’s comments came after some of the UK’s closest allies banned or limited the use of the firm’s network products over security concerns. Australia, New Zealand and the US have restricted use of Huawei technology in 5G mobile networks.

Scarborough-born Mr Williamson said: “I have grave, very deep concerns about Huawei providing the 5G network in Britain. It’s something we’d have to look at very closely.

“We’ve got to look at what partners such as Australia and the US are doing in order to ensure that they have the maximum security of that 5G network and we’ve got to recognise the fact, as has been recently exposed, that the Chinese state does sometimes act in a malign way.”

Huawei was founded by a former officer in the People’s Liberation Army and the firm’s links to the Chinese state have been questioned. The head of MI6, Alex Younger, recently said the UK would have to make “some decisions” about such firms after other governments took steps to block Huawei.

The firm strongly rejected suggestions it poses a security threat and said it had “never been asked by any government to build any back doors or interrupt any networks, and we would never tolerate such behaviour by any of our staff ”.

Concerns over China’s activities have heightened recently, with the Foreign Office having blamed hackers acting for the Chinese Ministry of State Security for stealing commercial secrets from firms in Europe, Asia and the US.