China syndromeU.S. to U.K.: Reconsider Huawei Deal or Risk Intelligence Sharing

Following the U.K. government’s decision on Tuesday to allow Huawei access to Britain’s 5G communication infrastructure, the United States, in no uncertain terms, has told Prime Minister Boris Johnson to reconsider the decision.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Chinese company – subsidized by the Chinese government and with close ties to China’s intelligence and military establishments — posed a “real risk” and that United States would have to evaluate the consequences for intelligence-sharing.

“This is an extension of the Chinese Communist Party with a legal requirement to hand over information to the Chinese Communist Party,” Pompeo said. “American information only should pass through trusted networks, and we’ll make sure we do that.”

ABC News reports that Pompeo, who arrived in London Wednesday, was careful, in talking with journalists, not to announce retaliatory measures. He also appeared to have accepted Johnson’s offer to cooperate on ways to reduce Western dependence on Huawei.

Asked how real the prospect was of reducing information sharing between the United States and Britain, Pompeo said it would depend on how the technology was incorporated. “We’ll have to wait to see what they actually do and how they implement what they’ve laid out,” he said. “There’s a chance for the UK to relook at this as implementation moves forward.”

He said Washington would consider Britain’s decision and make sure that when American information passed across a network it was “a trusted one.”

The Times reports that British security officials insist that intelligence sharing is by means of a dedicated encryption system.

Johnson spoke with President Trump on Tuesday, and after the conversation said his government’s decision would not damage the “extremely valuable” security co-operation with the Five Eyes alliance, which includes the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

He told MPs: “It is absolutely vital that people in this country do have access to the best technology available but that we also do absolutely nothing to imperil our relationship with the United States, to do anything to compromise our critical national security infrastructure, or to do anything to imperil our extremely valuable co-operation with Five Eyes security partners.”

Senior Conservative MPs were not shy in expressing their discomfort with the government’s decision. Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and the former Brexit secretary David Davis openly questioned the decision to allow Huawei into the most sensitive parts of the U.K. infrastructure.

Security experts noted two serious flaws in the government’s decision: First, while the government insists that an exceedingly narrow slice of 5G communication – among government agencies; the military; the intelligence services – would be protected from Huawei’s spying, all other communications will not be protected.

As one backbencher told The Times: “My hunch is that they think they can defend the military net, GCHQ, the agencies and that stuff. The problem is they’re leaving the rest of it open. Medical records, when you put the kettle on — everything will be ‘on air’ in 5G.”

Second, these security experts note that even if we ignore the Chinese persistent, intrusive spying, which would be allowed by giving Huawei access to the U.K. communication infrastructure, there is an additional problem: the government’s decision would place Huawei in a position to bring down the entire British communication system in the event of tension or conflict between Britain and China.

A British intelligence source, who spoke with journalists on condition of anonymity, while insisting that the most sensitive parts of British communication – if not general communication – would be protected from Chinese spying, admitted that there is nothing that can be done to prevent Huawei, once it has expanded its footprint within the British 5G infrastructure, from taking down the entire communication system if the company was instructed to do so by the Chinese government.

The intelligence official agreed that the decision to allow Huawei access was thus a “gamble.”

The government and lawmakers are now scrambling to address the security risks entailed by the Huawei decision. Among the mitigation measures solutions being considered: Limiting the share of Huawei-manufactured components in any network; boosting government funding of and help to U.K technology companies in order the lessen dependence on Huawei equipment; blocking the use of Huawei in the City of London amid fears about service-denial attacks affecting trades, and more.

The Times notes that while a high threshold of forty Conservative rebel MPs would be needed to block the legislation allowing Huawei access to U.K. infrastructure, even a small-scale MPs revolt would be seen as a big test of Johnson’s authority after he won a majority at last month’s election.

Matthew Henderson, of the Henry Jackson Society, said: “MPs must be satisfied that the government’s mitigation measures are sufficiently rigorous.”