US government has been mounting pressure on its UK counterpart not to use Huawei‘s 5G technology. That advice seems to have done little to dissuade the UK government from giving Huawei a thought. That has prompted the recent outburst by US official branding any decision to go for Huawei’s 5G technology as madness.
As a response, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reported to have requested that opponents of Huawei should suggest alternatives to the Chinese technology giant. “The British public deserves to have access to the best possible technology,” Johnson said in an interview with the BBC. “Now, if people oppose one brand or another, then they have to tell us what’s the alternative, right?”
Johnson noted that on the other hand, “I don’t want, as the U.K. prime minister, to put in any infrastructure that is going to prejudice our national security or our ability to cooperate with Five Eyes intelligence partners,” which include the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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Apart from the UK, the U.S. has been trying to persuade all its European allies to avoid using Huawei equipment in superfast next-generation telecom networks, over concerns China’s authorities can compel the company to spy on user data. Huawei has repeatedly denied the existence of such a possibility.
The British government is expected to make a final decision on Huawei’s role in “non-core” parts of the network, such as antennas. Multiple British media reports said the U.S. delegation told British officials that using Huawei would be “madness” and presented them with a technical file of new security risks.
Huawei said it’s confident the U.K. government will make its decision “based upon evidence, as opposed to unsubstantiated allegations.” Victor Zhang, vice president of Huaweiaadded; “Huawei has worked with the UK’s telecoms companies for 15 years, and looks forward to supplying the best technologies that help companies like BT and Vodafone fulfil the government’s commitment to make gigabit broadband available to all.”
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