Thursday 16 May 2019

Huawei is getting desperate for the UK 5G contract

Huawei, the huge Chinese telecommunications company, is now getting desperate. In an inducement to the UK to persuade the Theresa May government to buy into its 5G technology, the company has offered to sign a document that makes a pledge it will never use the technology for espionage purposes. It's like when a naughty boy promises his Mum he will never be naughty again. The 5G issue is not going to go away until the UK government fnally makes up its mind whether to believe the US insistence that Huawei WILL spy on everything once it gets its technology into the network or to trust the Chinese company to be an honest business partner and, one, especialy, who will say NO when asked by one of the nefarious Chinese intelligence services to start spying on the Brits. In the end it will all come down to politics, not technology. The reason why the UK Government under Theresa May (not for long I fear) is finding it difficult to make a final decision about a Huawei contract (the leaked decision from the UK National Security Council to allow Huawei partial access has not yet been confirmed as the final decision) is because it wants to retain good business relations with China in general. If the UK Government says no to Huawei as the US is demanding, May and co fear that Beijing will be so angry it will undermine/destroy the business partnership which Britain and China have been developing ever since David Cameron was prime minister. On the other hand, the UK Government doesn't want to anger Trump by going for Huawei and risking the special intelligence relationship with the US. Trump has today issued an executive order banning companies from engaging in any business with anyone that might endanger the country's national security. That's a far-reaching edict and clearly is aimed at Huawei even though he doesn't mention the company by name. The UK Government has responded by saying it is reviewing the Huawei issue. Well that's hardly a new development because despite the leaked "decision" from the National Security Council, the Huawei conundrum hasn't stopping being under review. I suspect the decision will now be put off until there is a new Tory leader. If it's to be Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, he might just say no to Huawei to keep in with Trump.

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