The Defense Committee of the UK Parliament has openly accused Huawei of complicity with the Chinese authorities, a step beyond the usual distrust displayed by Western authorities.
And the impending UK ban on Huawei’s involvement in its 5G networks was justified by potential security concerns, albeit as a result of US sanctions on Huawei, rather than nefarious intent.
US intelligence has also raised concerns about Huawei’s funding, allegedly for the security of the Chinese state. But as of Thursday, no Western official had gone so far as to accuse Huawei of actively colluding with Beijing, rather than simply being susceptible to Beijing’s invasive espionage laws.
“The concern about Huawei is based on clear evidence of collusion between the company and the Chinese Communist Party apparatus,” the UK Parliament’s Defense Committee said in a long-awaited report on 5G security, which was released on Thursday. in the morning.
Huawei responded to the committee’s accusation by saying the report was “based on opinion rather than fact” and called the collusion accusation “unfounded.”
The committee emphasized the point while urging the West not to “succumb to misinformed anti-China hysteria” and to recognize the “mutual benefits” of Chinese involvement in Western economies.
The UK’s own decision on the phase-out was made in July, when the government said that British telecom operators would have to stop buying new 5G equipment from Huawei at the end of this year and recall and replace all of their existing Huawei 5G equipment until 2027. …
On Thursday, Parliament’s Defense Committee said the 2027 target was “sensible” but that the government should look into the feasibility of getting rid of all Huawei 5G equipment two years earlier.
Surprisingly, he also argued that the British government should have ordered the removal earlier than it did, not out of technical concerns: US sanctions are forcing Huawei to redesign many of its products, which will likely cause safety and reliability problems, but rather. Rather because the United States and Australia, key partners for intelligence sharing in the UK, had already issued Huawei bans.
“The West must urgently unite to promote a counterweight to China’s technological dominance,” committee chair Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP, said of the report’s release.
