UK may stall its own tech development if it bars #Huawei from market – Chinese envoy

“Banning Huawei means back-pedaling for Britain,” Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming wrote in an article in the Sunday Telegraph (5 January). “Quite aside from the protectionist blow that such a move would strike, economic globalisation remains an irreversible trend of our times.”

The diplomat recalled that several British telecom operators had already admitted that turning away Huawei equipment would delay Britain's 5G, “leaving it trailing far behind in this latest industrial revolution” as the Shenzhen-based company is one of the global leaders in 5G.

Earlier discussions on Huawei and its participation in the rollout of the next-generation networks suggested that the company should be avoided, while the final decision is set to be made by the new British government this year.

The US has long been pressuring its allies, including the UK, to ban Huawei, alleging that it could be used by Beijing for spying and thus poses a security threat, despite the firm repeatedly denying the allegations. One of the recent “warnings” came from US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien who said that allowing Huawei in the ultrafast networks will pose a risk to the UK’s secret intelligence services.

“Fabricating ‘Huawei risk’ in the name of national security is tantamount to giving a dog a bad name to hang him,” Beijing's envoy to London said, calling on the UK not to hamper co-operation between the countries.

Huawei has been making vast investments in the UK, bringing £2 billion (US$2.6 billion) to the country from 2012 to 2017 and promising to pour £3 billion in the next several years.