May defies Trump and sticks to plan for 5G Huawei deal
THERESA May is set to defy Donald Trump and push ahead with plans to let Chinese firm Huawei help build Britain’s 5G network.
The Prime Minister is adamant that, despite security warnings, she wants the firm to be able to supply ‘non-core’ equipment such as antennae.
She is understood to have not been deterred by a stark warning from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that such a move would threaten intelligence sharing.
Her decision sets her on a collision course with President Trump just weeks before his state visit to Britain next month.
Details of her unwillingness to follow suit came after Mr Trump effectively blocked Huawei products from the US.
He signed an order declaring a national emergency and barring American companies from using equipment made by firms that pose a national security risk.
America also banned such firms, which could include Huawei, from buying vital US technology without special approval.
The two rulings threaten Huawei’s ability to continue to sell many products because of its reliance on America’s suppliers.
China threatened to retaliate, accusing Mr Trump of engaging in industrial sabotage by using state security ‘as a pretext for suppressing foreign business’.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: ‘We urge the US to stop this practice and instead create better conditions for business co- operation.’ The blacklisting follows reports last month that Mrs May was ready to let Huawei supply some parts of the UK’s 5G infrastructure, much to the fury of the Trump administration.
Details of the PM’s decision were leaked from a top security meeting and the then defence secretary Gavin Williamson was blamed and sacked.
Since then the PM has been warned not to go ahead with the plans, but sources claim she was sticking to her guns.
Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove said yesterday that giving Huawei a role in building the UK’s 5G network could give the Chinese government a ‘potentially advantageous exploitative position’.
In a report by the Henry Jackson Society think-tank, he said it was ‘a risk... we simply do not need to take’.
The report, co-authored by Tory MP Bob Seely, said Huawei claimed to be a private firm, but in China it acts like and is treated as a state-owned enterprise, and was subject to China’s National Intelligence Law, which means it could be required to assist China’s intelligence agencies in their operations and research and development.
A Huawei spokesman said: ‘We are an independent, employee-owned company which does not take instructions from the Chinese government.’
It was claimed yesterday that Dutch intelligence services were investigating whether Huawei had helped create a cyber ‘back door’ for Chinese spies.
Daily newspaper De Volkskrant said data from devices in the Netherlands may have been hacked as a result. Huawei said: ‘In every country where we do business, we abide by the laws and regulations and protect the privacy of our customers.’