The new British prime minister must make an urgent decision on whether to include China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) in the UK 5G telecoms network, as the ongoing debate is damaging international relations, a committee of UK lawmakers said yesterday.
The British National Security Council, chaired by British Prime Minister Theresa May, met to discuss Huawei in April and a decision was made to block the telecoms giant from all critical parts of the 5G network, but to give it restricted access to less sensitive parts.
However, the US has told allies not to use Huawei’s technology, as it fears the company could be used by Beijing for spying operations.
Conversely, China has warned the UK that excluding the firm could hurt investment and trade.
The final decision on Huawei was already supposed to have been taken by the British government, but May’s decision to step down has stalled the process.
Her replacement, either British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Jeremy Hunt or former London mayor Boris Johnson, who is the frontrunner, is to be installed next week.
“The new prime minister must take a decision as a matter of priority,” said Dominic Grieve, chairman of the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee.
In a statement, the committee said that British cybersecurity chiefs had been clear that the issue was not about one country or company, but that the system had to be able to withstand any attack, malicious action or simple human error.
This was best achieved by diversifying suppliers and the issue at the moment for 5G was that there were only three firms in the running — Huawei, Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB, the committee said.
Over-dependence and less competition resulted in lower security standards, it said.
“Therefore including a third company — even if you may have some security concerns about them and will have to set a higher bar for security measures within the system — will, counter-intuitively, result in higher overall security,” it said.
However, the committee said that the decision was not just technical and that the British government had to take into account political concerns and so should not do anything to jeopardize the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
It said that China would understand if Huawei were excluded, as Beijing would not allow a British company to play a role in its critical national infrastructure.
“Such an important decision therefore requires careful consideration,” the committee said. “However, the extent of the delay is now causing damage to our international relationships: A decision must be made as a matter of urgency.”
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