China would take necessary measures in response to Britain’s “discriminatory” ban on Huawei Technologies Co, which has severely damaged Beijing’s investment confidence in the country, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.
“China is evaluating the UK actions that have betrayed free trade principles and will take necessary measures to resolutely defend Chinese firms’ legal rights,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng (高峰) said during a weekly briefing, without giving details.
Gao urged Britain to “correct its wrong behavior” and protect its good trade ties with China.
Washington accuses Huawei, the biggest maker of switching gear for phone and Internet companies, of being a security risk, which the Chinese company denies. The administration of US President Donald Trump wants European and other allies to exclude Huawei as they upgrade to 5G networks.
On Tuesday, the British government announced that it would exclude Huawei from work on the network because US sanctions made it impossible to ensure the security of Chinese-supplied equipment.
“Without any concrete evidence, the United Kingdom took unfounded risks as an excuse and cooperated with the US to discriminate, suppress and exclude Chinese companies,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said on Tuesday.
Last year, Washington imposed curbs on Huawei’s access to US components and other technology. In May, the Trump administration tightened controls by blocking non-US companies from using US technology to produce processor chips and other components for Huawei without Washington’s approval.
Chinese officials accuse Washington of misusing national security concerns to block a rising competitor to US technology suppliers.
“China will fully and seriously evaluate this incident and take all measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” Hua said.
On Tuesday, Trump said Washington told other governments to avoid Huawei “if they want to do business with us.”
“We convinced many countries — many countries — and I did this myself, for the most part, not to use Huawei because we think it’s an unsafe security risk,” Trump said in Washington. “I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it.”
Huawei is at the center of US-Chinese conflicts over technology development and possible spying. The company’s chief financial officer is under house arrest in Canada and fighting extradition to the US to face charges related to possible breaches of trade sanctions on Iran.
Hua said Beijing would warn Chinese companies “to attach great importance to the increasing political security risks” they face in Britain.
On Tuesday, Huawei reported its revenue grew 13.1 percent in the first half of this year compared with a year earlier despite US pressure and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Huawei is, along with Nokia of Finland and Sweden’s LM Ericsson, a leader in development of the 5G technology, which is meant to expand networks to support self-driving cars, remote surgery and other yet-to-be-developped applications. That makes the technology more intrusive and politically sensitive.
US officials have suggested Washington might provide financing so that other countries can buy Nokia or Ericsson technology instead of Huawei’s lower-priced gear.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government agreed in January to allow Huawei to supply some equipment for the 5G network while the company would be barred from providing core components.
London reversed course after Washington threatened to end an intelligence-sharing agreement due to concern that Huawei’s involvement might allow Beijing to infiltrate British networks.
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