The defence secretary has said China needs to modify its cyber-behaviour and adopt a code of “fair play” if Beijing is to expect the British government to allow Huawei technology to be used in future 5G mobile networks.
Ben Wallace said a long-awaited decision on Huawei was coming soon, although he could not give a firm date, and told a defence industry audience any conclusions about the company had to be “more than just technical”.
Spelling out an additional precondition, the minister said: “This is also about behaviour. You know, it wasn’t that long ago that the United Kingdom and other nations called out China for some of its cyber-activity publicly.
“If we are going to allow countries access to our market, I think we should all expect a code of behaviour that is fair play – we are British, we believe in fair play. So I think that will also be reflected in those discussions.”
The UK has been grappling with whether to allow Huawei to supply 5G network technology for months, a decision that led to the sacking of Gavin Williamson as defence secretary by then prime minister, Theresa May, for leaking what was intended to be the final decision.
The decision held that Huawei, the market leader in 5G technology, would be allowed to supply “non-core” parts of the network. But after May’s replacement by Boris Johnson, this has come under review, with the US demanding Huawei not be used.
Washington repeatedly said it would have to review its intelligence sharing with the UK if Huawei were adopted in British phone networks, because it fears the Chinese company’s technology could be compromised in the future.
China, however, has warned not using Huawei as a supplier would delay the rollout of 5G in the UK. Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, said Britain would “lag a year-and-a-half behind”, according to some forecasts, and dropping Huawei would “send a bad message to Chinese business”.
Wallace conceded the Brexit crisis had delayed the timing of any announcement. The minister said he could not provide an exact timetable because “obviously there’s been some chop in the government, up and down”.
