London: Britain has singled out Australia and the United States as leading against the threat Huawei poses, with Theresa May's government expressing grave fears about the telco firm's ability to spy on behalf of the Chinese government "in a malign way".
Britain has only recently issued its concerns about Huawei publicly amid widespread concern among the other Five Eyes countries that the UK has been the slowest of the group to respond to the potential threat.
Australia banned Huawei and ZTE technology from participating in the 5G rollout in August.Credit:AP
US President Donald Trump is considering invoking emergency powers to ban all US companies from buying equipment from foreign telecommunications suppliers that pose a risk to national security. Previously, the Trump administration had banned all government agencies and contractors from using Huawei and ZTE technology.
In August, the Australian government banned Huawei and ZTE technology from participating in the 5G rollout. New Zealand has since followed.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson says he has “deep concerns” over Huawei.Credit:Bloomberg
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told The Times that Britain would need to look very closely at whether Huawei should be allowed to provide the infrastructure for the country's 5G rollout.
“I have grave, very deep concerns about Huawei providing the 5G network in Britain," he said. BT has this month said it would not use Huawei equipment in it's 5G rollout and has also confirmed it is stripping out Huawei's 4G and 3G out of it's network.
"We’ve got to look at what partners such as Australia and the US are doing in order to ensure that they have the maximum security of that 5G network and we’ve got to recognise the fact, as has been recently exposed, that the Chinese state does sometimes act in a malign way.”
Huawei says it has signed more than 20 contracts to provide 5G services in countries.
John Hemmings, from the Westminster think tank The Henry Jackson Society, which has been at the forefront of urging the British government to take a tougher stance against the Chinese threat, said if Britain's telcos failed to heed the warnings about Huawei they could face a ban.
“There is no doubt that Chinese companies like Huawei would act in accordance with Chinese national interests," he said.
“Up until now, intelligence chiefs have been coy on what they have on Huawei. I think we are getting to the stage where they will have to air their evidence in public, if only to save us from inserting more of China into our digital infrastructure”.
“If the corporate world is going to ignore the warnings of the intelligence community, the warnings of those tasked with defending the nation’s security, then legislation might be the only option," he said.
Earlier this month, the head of MI6 Alex Younger described the Australian and New Zealand ban as "really interesting" and said the decision should spark a conversation in Britain about how much Chinese ownership in critical infrastructure voters would allow.
"We need to decide the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies and these platforms in an environment where some of our allies have taken quite a definite position," he said.
The British government's more muscular stance on Huawei follows last week's joint statement from Five-Eyes and allied countries identifying Chinese hackers as behind a two-year worldwide commercial espionage program widely known as "Cloud Hopper."
“This campaign is one of the most significant and widespread cyber intrusions against the UK and allies uncovered to date, targeting trade secrets and economies around the world," said Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
“These activities must stop," he said. “Our message to governments prepared to enable these activities is clear: together with our allies, we will expose your actions and take other necessary steps to ensure the rule of law is upheld.”
Huawei was founded by Ren Zhengfei, an ex-People's Liberation Army officer but executives have always insisted the company is privately owned and does not support the Chinese government.
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