UK PM Johnson defiant over Huawei decision

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended his decision to allow Huawei to continue to build telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom, amid a backlash from British and United States lawmakers.

The UK announced on Tuesday that Huawei would be permitted to play a limited role in constructing the nation's 5G networks, with a 35 percent cap on its market share.

The move was criticized by several British parliamentarians, as well as the US administration, which has persistently lobbied for a boycott of Huawei due to Washington's cybersecurity concerns.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson said that limiting Huawei to the periphery of networks would both mitigate potential security issues and allow the UK to keep pace with other world powers in the rollout of 5G and associated technologies.

"It is absolutely vital that people in this country do have access to the best technology available but that we also do absolutely nothing to imperil our relationship with the United States, to do anything to compromise our critical national security infrastructure, or to do anything to imperil our extremely valuable cooperation with Five Eyes security partners," Johnson said.

Much of the criticism of the Huawei decision has come from within Johnson's own Conservative Party. Former defense secretary Penny Mordaunt called the move "regrettable" and former party leader Iain Duncan Smith said he was "deeply disappointed". Conservative MP Damian Green told the BBC that Johnson could face a Conservative rebellion if MPs are not given assurances that Huawei involvement in UK networks will be phased out over time.

In recommendations released on Wednesday, the European Union advised that member states consider limiting so-called high-risk vendors in their 5G rollouts, but the bloc also stopped short of supporting a full ban on Huawei.

In response, the Mission of the People's Republic of China to the EU said it hopes to continue working with the trading bloc in order to uphold "multilateralism, free trade, and market principles".

The mission also accused "a few countries and politicians" of "politicizing cybersecurity".

"This old-fashioned Cold War mentality is becoming an increasingly large challenge in the field of cybersecurity and should be resolutely resisted," a spokesman from the mission said in a statement.

Several critics of Johnson's decision said they are concerned that Huawei's presence in UK networks will impact the country's relationships with the United States and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing community, which includes Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

On Tuesday, Tom Cotton, a member of the US Senate select committee on intelligence, asked for a "thorough review" of intelligence-sharing with the UK.

And on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters he hopes the UK government will reconsider and adopt a full ban on Huawei.

"We were urging them to make a decision that was different than the one they made and we'll have a conversation about how to proceed," Pompeo said. "It's important for everyone to know there is also real work being done by lots of private companies inside the United States and in Europe to make sure that there are true competitors to Huawei."

Pompeo was scheduled to arrive in London on Wednesday night to hold talks with Johnson and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

In a statement delivered in Parliament, Raab said UK security services are confident that a limited role for Huawei in British networks will not compromise intelligence-sharing channels.

"How we construct our 5G and full fiber public telecoms network has nothing to do with how we share classified data," Raab said on Tuesday. "And the UK's technical security experts have agreed that the new controls on high-risk vendors are completely consistent with the UK's security needs."

By forgoing a full ban on Huawei, the UK has prevented large-scale disruption to its network infrastructure. A Huawei ban would necessitate ripping out existing equipment and replacing it with new kit that is compatible with 5G upgrades from different vendors.

The UK relies heavily on Huawei for much of its existing telecommunications infrastructure. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport, or DCMS, estimates that 44 percent of equipment in fixed access networks and 35 percent of equipment in 4G mobile access networks was sourced from the Chinese company.

"There is no doubt there has been a market failure in relation to the telecoms equipment provided by companies – not just Huawei but other providers like Nokia and Ericsson who, again, are overseas – and we do need to do more to build up our own," UK Digital Secretary Nicky Morgan told British broadcaster Talk Radio on Wednesday.

In a telecoms supply-chain review published last year, the DCMS said, if left unregulated, Huawei's involvement would likely grow significantly during 5G rollout, prompting the government to introduce the 35 percent market cap to encourage vendor diversity.

Hamish MacLeod, a director at Mobile UK, which is the trade association for network operators EE, Telefonica, O2, Three, and Vodafone, said he supported the government's decision.

"Mobile UK welcomes the clarity provided by the government and the certainty it provides going forward," MacLeod said in a statement. "The mobile industry continues to believe that it is in the interests of customers and the UK's desire to be a global leader in 5G that it must have access to a diverse supply chain that is open to the latest and most innovative technologies."

Chen Weihua in Brussels contributed to this story.