U.K. Parliamentary Committee Alleges ‘Collusion’ Between Huawei And Chinese Communist Party

Topline

The British parliament’s defence committee said on Thursday that it had found “clear evidence of collusion” between telecom equipment giant Huawei and the “Chinese Communist Party apparatus” and called for accelerated removal of Huawei’s equipment from the country’s 5G network before Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s original 2027 deadline.

Key Facts

Crucial Quote

“The West must urgently unite to advance a counterweight to China’s tech dominance,” Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence committee, said. He added: “We must not surrender our national security for the sake of short-term technological development.” The Conservative MP previously attacked Huawei on Twitter calling it a “foreign tech co(mpany) that’s obliged to embed surveillance tools by its host state.”

Key Background

Last week, the U.K.’s cyber-intelligence agency, GCHQ, put out a report stating that Huawei has failed to adequately resolve security flaws in the equipment used by the country’s telecom networks. The British government had initiated a review of Huawei’s equipment after the U.S. government issued sanctions against the company in May restricting it from sourcing key components from American suppliers. Following the sanctions, the U.K.’s  National Cyber Security Centre determined that Huawei’s equipment could no longer be considered safe as it had to rely on non-US components. In July, the U.K. government banned Huawei from its 5G networks, ordering telecom operators in the country to stop buying hardware from the Chinese company by the end of this year and stripping out all Huawei equipment from their 5G networks by 2027. The move followed intense pressure from the U.S., whose distrust of Huawei essentially forced Boris Johnson to side with Trump, despite China threatening to pull major U.K. investment in retaliation.

Big Number

£2 billion ($2.6 billion). That is how much the ban on Huawei is likely to cost the U.K government, as it would result in the delay of the country’s planned 5G network rollout by up to three years, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden previously told the British parliament.

Further Reading

Huawei Has Failed To Resolve Security Flaws, U.K. Government Report Says (Forbes)

Huawei: MPs claim ‘clear evidence of collusion’ with Chinese Communist Party (BBC)