BEIJING: London on Tuesday announced a sweeping ban on Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G rollout, marking a U-turn in the country’s policy towards the Chinese telecoms company under pressure from Washington and domestic conservative groups.
As Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden made the announcement, he said, “it is the right one (decision) for the UK telecoms networks, for our national security and our economy, both now and indeed in the long run.”
As a matter of fact, this is both a wrong and bad decision for his country.
For starters, the security concerns the British government has evoked to ban Huawei simply do not stand.
Huawei, like Nokia or Ericsson, is a private enterprise that is owned by its thousands of employees. Thus those who accuse the company of working for the Chinese government are simply lying.
So far, no one — not even U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien who try to bite Huawei whenever possible — has been able to present any credible evidence to prove any security threat theories.
In fact, Huawei’s 91 commercial 5G contracts signed with partners worldwide, over half of which were signed in Europe, can also speak for the company’s quality in security management.
“We are probably the most open and transparent organization in the world. We are probably the most poked and prodded organization too,” John Suffolk, Huawei’s global cybersecurity and privacy officer, once said in an interview with the BBC.–Agencies
