UK decision bad, says China’s envoy
Huawei’s exclusion means country will miss opportunity to lead in 5G
China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said the decision to remove the Chinese technology company Huawei from Britain’s 5G infrastructure was a “dark day for the United Kingdom”, and could be a missed opportunity for the UK to lead in the sector.
The British government announced on July 14 that it planned to ban UK mobile providers from purchasing new Huawei 5G equipment after the end of 2020 and asked telecom operators to remove all the Chinese company’s 5G kit from their networks by 2027.
Ambassador Liu Xiaoming said on July 19 in an interview that he thought the UK had made a mistake regarding its decision on Huawei, and that the British government would struggle to achieve its plan to have full 5G coverage by 2025. Speaking on the BBC’s The Andrew
Marr Show, Liu said: “This is a very bad decision. This is a dark day for Huawei. It’s a dark day for China-UK relations. It’s an even darker day for the United Kingdom, because you will miss the opportunity to be a leading country.”
While some people warn of the socalled national security risk posed by the Chinese technology giant to the 5G network, Liu said there is no hard, solid evidence to suggest Huawei is a risk to the UK.
“They’ve been here for 20 years. They have made a huge contribution not only to the telecom industry of this country. They have fulfilled their corporate responsibility. They have helped the UK to develop,” Liu said.
The British government pledged to make the UK completely 5G and fullfiber connected by 2025, and Liu said Huawei could be a big help to deliver that, “but now it seems to me the UK just kicks them out and, to use the media words, to purge them under the pressure from the United States.”
During the interview, the ambassador echoed a point made by leading British scholar and Sinologist Martin Jacques, author of the book When
China Rules the World, who wrote in a recent tweet “history turns full circle”.
“In 1793, Chinese Emperor Qianlong told the British king: ‘We don’t have the slightest need of your country’s manufactures.’ So marked the start of China’s 150 year decline. In 2020 UK tells China that it has no need of China’s latest technology,” Jacques tweeted.
Liu said, “So I do not know what will happen in the next 150 years.”
When asked whether the Chinese government planned to retaliate against British companies operating in China, Liu said: “We do not want to politicize the economy. That is wrong. It’s wrong for the United Kingdom to discriminate against Chinese companies because of pressure from the United States.”
The ambassador urged the British government to demonstrate independence in its policies.
“If the UK government goes as far as to impose sanctions on any individual in China, China will certainly give resolute response to it… I do not want to see this tit-for-tat between China and the US to happen in China-UK relations. I think the UK should have its own independent foreign policy rather than to dance to the tune of Americans, like what happened to Huawei,” Liu said.
Liu refuted the notion that China has become “so aggressive” lately.
“That’s totally wrong. China has not changed. It’s the Western countries headed by the United States. They started this so-called ‘new cold war’ on China. They have this sanction. They have this smearing and namecalling.”
Separately, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on July 21 that China is firmly opposed to the United Kingdom’s interference in its internal affairs and will take countermeasures after the UK announced it will suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
“China reserves the right to react,” Wang told reporters at a regular news briefing in Beijing.
The spokesman stressed that the affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are China’s internal affairs that allow no interference from any foreign country, and he urged the UK to give up its fantasies of continuing colonial influence in the territory and immediately correct its mistakes.
In a statement released by the Chinese embassy in the UK, the embassy spokesperson said the UK had once again contravened international law and the basic norms governing international relations, and blatantly interfered in China’s internal affairs in an attempt to disrupt the implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong SAR and undermine the city’s prosperity and stability.
“China urges the UK side to immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are China’s internal affairs, in any form. The UK will bear the consequences if it insists on going down the wrong road,” the statement said.
Wang also refuted a Wall Street Journal report that said China is considering retaliating against telecoms equipment makers Nokia and Ericsson if the European Union follows the US and the UK in banning Huawei from 5G networks.
“The report is groundless. It’s maliciously fabricated fake news,” Wang said.
“It’s wrong for the United Kingdom to discriminate against Chinese companies because of pressure from the United States.”
LIU XIAOMING
China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom
“China reserves the right to react.”
WANG WENBIN
Foreign Ministry spokesman