A Huawei U-turn must now be inevitable

The declaration by US authorities that Huawei and fellow Chinese comms firm ZTE are national security threats is likely to have a clear outcome. It will knock the UK government further down the path it already seemed to be travelling: reversing its decision to allow Huawei to play a role in Britain’s 5G communications network. 

Boris Johnson’s government surprised many earlier this year by approving Huawei to build what it called ‘non-core’ parts of the network, in spite of US threats to withhold the exchange of intelligence if Huawei was allowed to be involved. He made the decision in spite of warnings from Britain’s own security services. Head of MI6 Alex Younger has warned that ‘in China they have a different legal and ethical framework. They are able to use and manipulate data sets on a scale that we can only dream of.’

As a committed free-trader, Johnson would have been extremely reluctant to place any such ban on the Chinese firm, knowing that the alternative kit, mostly likely from Sweden or Finland, was more expensive and would take longer to install.