China syndromeU.S. in Last-Ditch Effort to Sway U.K.’s Huawei Decision

Published 13 January 2020

The government of Boris Johnson will today (Monday) face last-minute lobbying blitz by the Trump administration to exclude Huawei from the U.K. 5G network. Johnson’s decision is expected before the end of the month, and the U.S. has threatened that intelligence sharing with the U.K. would be restricted if Johnson did not block Huawei. The U.S. intelligence community has evidence that Huawei is using its technological reach to serve as the eyes and ears of the Chinese intelligence services.

The government of Boris Johnson will today (Monday) face a last-minute lobbying blitz by the Trump administration to exclude Huawei from the U.K. 5G network.

Johnson’s decision is expected before the end of the month, and it carries substantial geopolitical and economic consequences.

The U.S. intelligence community has evidence that Huawei is using its technological reach to serve as the eyes and ears of the Chinese intelligence services. The worry is not only that allowing Huawei technology to be used in the U.K.– or any other country’s – 5G communication infrastructure would dramatically enhance the snooping and eavesdropping capabilities of the Chinese intelligence services, but that in times of conflict, Huawei, on instructions of the Chinese government, would throw the switch and partially paralyze the infrastructure of the country where Huawei technology is installed.

Several authoritarian regimes in Africa and Asia have installed Huawei technology in their countries, and Huawei technicians have trained the domestic intelligence services of these countries in using the company’s technology for constant and intrusive surveillance of political dissidents and critics of the regime.

The Telegraph reports that the United States has warned that if the U.K. were to use Chinese technology in its communication infrastructure, then the United States would restrict intelligence sharing with the U.K.

Banning Huawei technology would be costly to the U.K. telecoms sector, however, and would cause major delays rolling out 5G technology in Britain.

China, for its part, has been pressuring Johnson not to risk the U.K.-China relationship. This issue is especially important now, as both the United States and China are likely to play a larger role in the economic outlook for the U.K. post-Brexit.

The U.S. delegation meeting with Johnson Monday includes representatives from the National Economic Council and National Security Agency.

Ahead of the arrival of the American delegation, Andrew Parker, head of MI5, one of Britain’s main intelligence services, said he had “no reason to think” that the U.K. intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States would be harmed if Britain adopted Huawei technology in its 5G mobile phone network.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Sir Andrew, who is stepping down as director-general of MI5 in April, said the links in the “Five Eyes” intelligence partnership between Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were “the strongest they’ve been.”