China syndromeU.K. Set to Reverse Huawei Decision
In a dramatic turnaround, the British government will in a few days announce that it was reversing its decision earlier this year to allow Huawei to provide components for Britain’s 5G communication infrastructure. In January, the government said it would push for a deal which would allow Huawei to supply up to 35 percent of the components of the new 5G network, and that these components would be allowed only on the “edge” of the networks, not the networks’ “core.” The government is now set to announce that Huawei’s components will not be allowed in the U.K. 5G networks, and that all of the Chinese company’s gear will be removed from older communication networks by the end of 1922. The government’s January deal would probably have failed to gain approval in parliament, as Conservative backbenchers who oppose the January deal now have more than enough votes to block it.
In a dramatic turnaround, the British government is setting in motion a process which will result in a reversal of its decision earlier this year to allow Huawei to provide components for Britain’s 5G communication infrastructure.
In January, the government said it would push for a deal which would allow Huawei to supply up to 35 percent of the components of the new 5G network, and that these components would be allowed only on the “edge” of the networks, not the networks’ “core.”
News leaked on Friday that the U.K. National Cyber Security Center is conducting an emergency review of the earlier decision to allow Huawei access to the U.K. critical infrastructure. It is understood that the review will conclude that the tightening U.S. sanctions against the Chinese tech giant will make it impossible for the United Kingdom to use the Chinese company’s technology in the country’s 5G networks, as was initially planned.
Techcrunchnotes that the emergency review is designed allow the government to push for the complete removal of Huawei equipment from British phone networks by the end of 2022. Britain’s older G4 networks use Huawei components, and G3
The government’s move is also meant to quell a growing revolt by Conservative backbenchers. The opposition to the Huawei 5G deal has only intensified as a result of what has been perceived as China’s less-than-honest handling of the coronavirus crisis.
A government spokesman said: “Following the U.S. announcement of additional sanctions against Huawei, the NCSC is looking carefully at any impact they could have to the U.K.’s networks.”
In recent months; the Trump administration has announced a series of sanctions aiming to limit Huawei’s access to the communication networks of U.S. allied. The United States has long viewed Huawei, a company heavily subsidized by the Chinese government and which has close ties to the Chinese intelligence and military establishments, as a company which allows its technology to be used by the Chinese intelligence services to spy on countries where the company’s gear is installed. Moreover, the greater fear is that if there are tensions or conflicts between China and a country where Huawei’s technology is installed, the Chinese government could simply instruct Huawei to shut down the networks in which the company’s equipment is used, thus paralyzing the communication networks of those countries.
The new round of U.S. sanctions would prevent Huawei from using U.S. semiconductors and software to build 5G equipment.
U.K. government sources said that the new U.S. restrictions mean that Huawei would have to source alternative 5G equipment and software to replace the U.S.-made equipment and software, and will likely do so in China. But this means that Huawei, now relying solely on Chinese-made parts and software, would pose an even greater security risk than it would have posed when partially using U.S.-made gear.
Security tests of Huawei equipment to be used in the U.K. have already found “backdoors” built into Chinese-made components, backdoors which would have allowed Chinese intelligence to spy on U.K. communications going over the networks. British security experts were especially worried to discover the effort Huawei’s technicians have invested in trying to conceal these backdoors.
Thanks to heavy subsidies by the Chinese government, Huawei had become the leading supplier of 5G equipment in a market otherwise dominated by Ericsson of Sweden and Nokia of Finland. The government subsidies allow the Chinese company to produce cheaper kits, which made the company’s gear attractive to BT and Vodafone.
However, British political attitudes to China have hardened since the start of the coronavirus crisis amid complaints that Beijing was slow to acknowledge the seriousness of the disease when it first emerged in the city of Wuhan.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Bob Seely, the two leaders of the Conservative MPs rebellion against the Huawei deal, say they believe they now have the votes not only to block the government’s current deal with Huawei, but also for the removal of Huawei’s equipment from all U.K. networks by the end of 2022.
On Sunday Seely tweeted that there were “now 59 MPs” in the Conservative Huawei Interest Group – in theory, more than the 44 or so rebels required to defeat Johnson’s government despite the Tories’ healthy Commons majority.
On Friday, Sir Iain welcomed Johnson’s decision to review the Huawei deal, telling The Telegraph: “This is very good news and I hope and believe it will be the start of a complete and thorough review of our dangerous dependency on China.”
Matthew Henderson, director of the Asia Studies Center at the Henry Jackson Society, told the Guardian: “This review is recognition that the government’s previous position on Huawei was untenable, both due to the scale of opposition in parliament and from our allies.”
