Chinese Envoy Threatens UK over Huawei 5G Ban

Chinese Envoy Threatens UK over Huawei 5G Ban

China has threatened the United Kingdom with “consequences” if it were to ban the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from the 5G roll-out, the next generation of wireless networks.

Beijing’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, warned Prime Boris Johnson that “you cannot have a golden era if you treat China as an enemy.” Britain will “bear the consequences” for proposed blacklisting of the Chinese company from its critical telecommunications network, the Chinese envoy declared.

In an angry rant, the Chinese envoy accused the UK of succumbing to American pressure, calling Washington a “so-called superpower.”

“You punish your image as a country that can conduct independent policy. It means you succumb to foreign pressure and you cannot make your own independent foreign policy,” the Chinese envoy said. “The more pressure from so called superpower and from its allies Huawei will grow stronger.”

Reuters news agency reported Chinese envoy’s remarks:

Britain will have to bear the consequences if it treats China as a hostile country when deciding whether to allow Huawei to be involved in the country’s telecommunications networks, the Chinese ambassador to Britain said on Monday.

“We want to be your friend. We want to be your partner. But if you want to make China a hostile country, you will have to bear the consequences,” Liu Xiaoming told reporters.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week he would proceed carefully on making a decision on Huawei because the government did not want any critical infrastructure to be controlled by “potentially hostile state vendors”.

The Chinese threat comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is considering a ban on Huawei on the grounds of national security. Britain’s top intelligence agency, the GCHQ, has recommended the government to keep the Chinese telecom vendor out of 5G roll-out, the UK media reports say.

“The government has received a report into Huawei that is likely to change its policy over the Chinese firm’s role in the UK’s telecoms networks,” BBC reported on Monday.

Prime Minister Johnson has sought a U.S.-led international alliance to build the 5G telecommunications network, overcoming the West’s dependence on Communist China.

“The government has approached Washington about a ‘D10’ club of democratic partners, based on the G7 plus Australia, South Korea and India,” British newspaper The Times reported on May 29.

The rift over 5G is a big diplomatic win for President Donald Trump’s administration, which has long argued to keep state-linked Chinese companies out of critical telecommunication networks in the U.S. and allied countries. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly urged the European allies to “put security first” and not to “give control of their critical infrastructure to Chinese tech giants” such as Huawei and ZTE.

His efforts are now bearing fruit.

“The tide is turning against Huawei as citizens around the world are waking up to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state,” Secretary Pompeo said on June 24. He cited European countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Romania, Denmark, and Latvia, as examples. India is also considering a similar ban, media reports confirmed last Tuesday.

Mike Pompeo invokes Thatcher in warning to UK over Huawei and China (May 2019)

[Cover image via YouTube]

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