In U.S. snub, UK allows Huawei’s 5G

— Britain decided Tuesday to let Chinese tech giant Huawei have a limited role supplying new high-speed network equipment to wireless carriers, ignoring the U.S. government’s warnings that it would sever intelligence sharing if the company was not banned.

Britain’s decision is the first by a major U.S. ally in Europe, and follows intense lobbying from the Trump administration and China as the two vie for technological dominance.

It sets up a diplomatic clash with the U.S., who claim that UK sovereignty is at risk because the company could give the Chinese government access to data, an allegation Huawei denies.

The decision was awkward for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who risks the fury of one of the UK’s closest allies at just the moment it needs the Trump administration to strike a trade deal after Brexit. Britain officially leaves the European Union at the end of the week, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to visit London today to meet with Johnson and Raab to reaffirm the tran-Atlantic relationship.

A senior Trump administration official said the U.S. is disappointed by the decision, adding that the U.S. government would work with the UK on a “way forward” that leads to the exclusion of “untrusted vendor components” from 5G networks. The official was not authorized to comment on the sensitive diplomacy between longstanding allies and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The UK said it was excluding “high risk” companies from supplying the sensitive “core” parts of the new fifth-generation, or 5G,