China using Huawei to drive a wedge between U.K. and U.S.
China is using telecoms giant Huawei to try to drive a wedge
between Britain and the United States, Republican senator Tom Cotton told
British lawmakers on Tuesday.
Cotton is one of several members of the U.S. Congress who
have sought to put pressure on Britain to reverse its January decision to give
China’s Huawei a limited role in building Britain’s 5G networks.
“It is my hope that the special relationship remains strong
although I fear China is attempting to drive a hi-tech wedge between us using
Huawei,” Cotton told the British parliament’s defence committee.
The United States has raised security concerns about Huawei
equipment, saying it could be used to steal Western secrets, and has warned
that allies that use it in their networks risked being cut off from valuable
intelligence sharing. Huawei has repeatedly denied the U.S. allegations.
“It’s clear that market position, rather than security
concerns, is what underpins America’s attack on Huawei. The committee was given
no evidence to substantiate security allegations,” said Huawei vice president
Victor Zhang.
Britain has said Huawei’s involvement will be capped at 35
per cent and it will be excluded from the network’s sensitive core.
Last month, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that, in
the wake of the coronavirus crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had asked
officials to plan to reduce China’s involvement in British 5G infrastructure to
zero by 2023.
“I do hope that as the government refines its decision, that
if it doesn’t reverse it outright, it will mitigate it and minimize the use of
Huawei technology, put it on a shorter time frame,” Cotton said.
“I would welcome that decision to go to zero by 2023 and I
would urge you to try and do so even sooner.”
Since Britain’s decision on Huawei, relations between London
and Beijing have grown tense over the situation in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, Britain said Beijing should step back from
introducing a national security law in Hong Kong which it said was in breach of
the 1984 agreement marking the handover of its former colony to China.
Comments
Post a Comment