Britain defies Trump plea to ban China’s Huawei from 5G network
Britain said on Tuesday that it would not ban equipment made by the Chinese technology giant Huawei from being used in its new high-speed 5G wireless network, the starkest sign yet that a U.S. campaign against the telecommunications company is faltering.
Despite more than a year of intense lobbying by the Trump administration, which has accused Huawei of having Chinese Communist Party ties that pose a national-security threat, the British government announced it would allow the company to provide equipment in some portions of a next-generation network to be built in the coming years.
The British decision was crucial in a broader fight for tech supremacy between the United States and China. Britain, a key U.S. ally, is the most important country so far to reject White House warnings that Huawei is an instrument of Beijing. Britain’s membership in the “five eyes” intelligencesharing group of countries, which also includes Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, gave the outcome an added significance.
Many countries have been caught between the United States and China in their tech cold war. American officials have threatened to withhold intelligence if countries do not ban Huawei, while Chinese representatives have warned of economic retaliation if they do.
“This is a U.K.-specific solution for U.K.-specific reasons and the decision deals with the challenges we face right now,” said Nicky Morgan, the secretary for digital, culture, media, and sport, the government agency that oversaw the decision.
“It not only paves the way for secure and resilient networks, with our sovereignty over data protected, but it also builds on our strategy to develop a diversity of suppliers,” she said.
The rules were announced on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with his National Security Council. The decision did not mention Huawei by name, instead referring more broadly to “high-risk vendors.” Such vendors will be limited to certain parts of the wireless infrastructure, such as antennas and base stations, that are not seen as posing a threat to the integrity of the system.
No single high-risk vendor will be allowed to exceed a 35% market share of the network, the rules said, an effort to encourage new competition.
A Trump administration official said the United
States was “disappointed” by Johnson’s decision.
Huawei has long denied that it is beholden to the Chinese government.
The crown jewel of China’s tech sector, Huawei is the largest provider of equipment to build systems based on fifth-generation wireless technology, known as 5G. That technology is seen as essential infrastructure in an increasingly digitized global economy. The networks will provide substantially faster download speeds, as well as new commercial applications in industries such as transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare.
Huawei’s prominence has made it a target of the United States. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and the daughter of the company’s founder, is fighting an extradition order in Canada stemming from a U.S. indictment on fraud charges.