China syndromeU.K. Will Not Be Able to Prevent “Misuse of Data” by China if Huawei Deal Goes Ahead: U.S. Ambassador

Published 3 July 2020

Robert Wood Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., warned that if the U.K. allowed Huawei access to the U.K. 5G communication infrastructure, there would be no way for the U.K. to prevent Chinese intelligence agencies from misusing the data collected by Huawei in the course of the company’s operations. Experts say that even more worryingly, if Huawei is allowed access to the nascent U.K. 5G infrastructure, the company, with a flip of a switch, could take down the entire U.K. communication system when ordered to do so by the Chinese government.

Robert Wood Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., warned that if the U.K. allowed Huawei access to the U.K. 5G communication infrastructure, there would be no way for the U.K. to prevent Chinese intelligence agencies from misusing the data collected by Huawei in the course of the company’s operations.

He further warned that that “trust” can’t exist with a company such as Huawei.

The Telegraph reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is planning an about-turn on its decision from January this year to allow Huawei to provide up to 35 percent of the components to the U.K. nascent 5G system.

Huawei is heavily subsidized by the Chinese government, and can thus offer much reduced prices for its gear relative to those offered by Western companies such as Nokia, Erickson, and AT&T. The British decision has come under withering criticism from the United States and other countries, and a growing number of Tory MPs lined up to oppose the deal. The final blow was China’s duplicitous conduct during the coronavirus crisis, persuading earlier supporters of the deal that China – and, by extension, Huawei, with is intimate ties with the Chinese intelligence and defense establishments – cannot be trusted.

Robert Wood Johnson warned that “trust, especially in something as important as a 5G network, cannot exist with a company such as Huawei that answers to an authoritarian government like China’s.”

The ambassador, in an article to be published in The Telegraph on Saturday, U.A. Independence Day, added: “There is simply no way to prevent China’s misuse of data.

The Chinese Communist Party acquires technology and intellectual property through licit and illicit means, through collaboration and deception, by state-subsidized investment and joint research, but also through outright theft.”

He added: “The United States, therefore, is deeply concerned about the serious risk companies like Huawei pose to US national security and the security of advanced technology producing countries like the United Kingdom.  It is far better to strengthen ties to trusted vendors and countries who believe in free, fair, and balanced trade.”

Critics of the U.K. government’s January decision pointed out that allowing Huawei access to the U.K. 5G infrastructure would not only allow the Chinese intelligence services to spy on all the communication run over networks built with Huawei components, but even more worryingly, Huawei, with a flip of a switch, could take down the entire U.K. communication system when ordered to do so by the Chinese government.