China accuses Britain of helping Washington hurt Chinese tech giant Huawei
China accused Britain on Wednesday of colluding with
Washington to hurt Huawei after the Chinese tech giant was blocked from working
on a British next-generation mobile phone network.
A government spokeswoman said Beijing will protect Chinese
companies but gave no indication of possible retaliation.
Washington accuses Huawei Technologies Ltd., the biggest
maker of switching gear for phone and internet companies, of being a security
risk, which the Chinese company denies. The Trump administration wants European
and other allies to exclude Huawei as they upgrade to fifth-generation, or 5G,
networks.
On Tuesday, the British government announced Huawei would be
excluded from work on the network because U.S. sanctions made it impossible to
ensure the security of Chinese-supplied equipment.
“Without any concrete evidence, the United Kingdom took
unfounded risks as an excuse and cooperated with the United States to
discriminate, suppress and exclude Chinese companies,” foreign ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
Last year, Washington imposed curbs on Huawei’s access to
American components and other technology. In May, the Trump administration
tightened controls by blocking non-U.S. companies from using American
technology to produce processor chips and other components for Huawei without
Washington’s approval.
Chinese officials accuse Washington of misusing national
security concerns to block a rising competitor to U.S. tech suppliers.
“China will fully and seriously evaluate this incident and
take all measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese
enterprises,” Hua said.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump said Washington told
other governments to avoid Huawei “if they want to do business with us.”
“We convinced many countries — many countries — and I did
this myself, for the most part, not to use Huawei because we think it’s an
unsafe security risk,” Trump said in Washington. “I talked many countries out
of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it.”
Huawei is at the center of U.S.-Chinese conflicts over
technology development and possible spying. The company’s chief financial
officer is under house arrest in Canada and fighting extradition to the United
States to face charges related to possible violations of trade sanctions on
Iran.
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