UK bans Huawei from 5G network, orders telcos to stop buying its equipment

Britain's government on Tuesday backtracked on plans to give Chinese telecommunications company Huawei a limited role in the UK's new high-speed mobile phone network in a decision with broad implications for relations between London and Beijing.

Britain imposed the ban after the US threatened to sever an intelligence-sharing arrangement because of concerns Huawei equipment could allow the Chinese government to infiltrate UK networks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was under pressure from rebels in his own Conservative Party who criticized China's new Hong Kong security law and its treatment of ethnic Uighurs, as well as Huawei's links to the Chinese government.

Ten Conservative lawmakers sent a letter to Johnson demanding that he remove Huawei from the UK's critical national infrastructure.

#BREAKING Britain orders telecoms providers to stop purchasing 5G equipment from China's Huawei from start of next year, strip out all of its equipment by 2027 pic.twitter.com/c3SoVQP89d

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 14, 2020

#BREAKING China's Huawei says UK 5G ban 'disappointing' and 'politicised' pic.twitter.com/zKabzPi2JJ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 14, 2020

Johnson in January sought to balance economic and security pressures by agreeing to give Huawei a limited role in Britain's so-called 5G network, excluding the company from core components of the system and restricting its involvement to 35% of the overall project.

But the move set up a diplomatic clash with the Americans, who threatened to cut off security cooperation unless Britain dumped Huawei. Amid continued pressure to remove Huawei from communication networks entirely, the US in May imposed new sanctions that will bar companies around the world from using American-made machinery or software to produce chips for the Chinese company.