Huawei forces UK shift on China

Boris Johnson is to pivot Britain away from Chinese technology towards Australia and other ‘five-eyes’ intelligence partners.

Britain’s national security cabinet has signed off on the claw back of Huawei’s 35 per cent involvement in Britain’s new 5G telecommunications system. Picture: AFP

Britain is to form a deeper relationship with Australia and its other “five-eyes’ intelligence partners that will see heavy ­investment in areas China dominates, such as technology and ­research.

The UK National Security Council last week approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to end reliance on Chinese technology and turn instead to Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand for expertise in key infrastructure.

The NSC signed off on the claw back of Chinese company Huawei’s 35 per cent involvement in Britain’s new 5G telecommunications system and now desires a Western solution to plug technology gaps.

The dramatic political and diplomatic reset comes after China’s handling of novel coronavirus, and security developments in the former British colony of Hong Kong that have alarmed increasing numbers of Tory backbenchers.

Mr Johnson wrote in the South China Morning Post last week that Britain would give about 3 million Hong Kong residents holding British National Overseas passports a pathway to UK citizenship and right to work in Britain, should China as promised impose its own national ­security law on the financial hub.

Some participants in the NSC’s “highly colourful debate’’ between ministers and spy chiefs raised economic alarms, concerned Britain was already being hammered by the coronavirus lockdown that has paralysed the country and the prospect of further dislocation with exit from the EU at the end of the year.

But Mr Johnson has aligned with the earlier concerns raised by Five Eyes partners about Chinese influence in critical national infrastructure at a time when the UK is in the midst of trade talks with the US. Formal free trade negotiations with Australia will begin within weeks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Business Secretary Alok Sharma pushed for continued Chinese investment in steel, telecommunications and nuclear power. However, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and cabinet minister Michael Gove backed Mr Johnson’s pro-West stance.

The Mail on Sunday reported a senior Whitehall source saying: “We have lost expertise in dozens of major markets like technology and science, hence why we got into the Huawei mess. The Chinese have just hoovered up. It is not realistic for Britain to go it alone and this malaise is not a uniquely British problem — it is felt across the West.

“So on this we are going to help our partners plug the gaps that the Chinese are currently exploiting.’’

Banks HSBC and Standard Charter last week supported China’s new national security legislation for Hong Kong. The Telegraph reported on Sunday that HSBC waded further into British-Chinese tensions with chairman Mark Tucker warning Downing Street against dropping Huawei from its 5G plans. Mr Tucker claimed the bank would face reprisals in China, where it garners 80 per cent of its profits.

China’s ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, warned business leaders that abandoning Huawei could undermine plans by Chinese companies to build nuclear power plants and the HS2 high-speed rail network. Mr Liu said Huawei was “a litmus test of whether Britain is a true and faithful partner of China”.

He also urged Britain recognise Hong Kong was now part of China. “If UK is bent on changing BNO passport policy unilaterally, it will not only go against its own position & promise but also violate international law & the basic norms governing international relations,” he tweeted.

Government officials said the comments were “sabre-rattling”.

Britain’s stand could kill off the proposal by the China General Nuclear Power Corporation to build a nuclear power reactor at Bradwell in Essex. It also puts pressure on the EU, which has ­allowed major Chinese port ­developments in its southern member countries.