UK 5G upgrade: Defence Secretary gravely worried about Huawei's involvement
UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Thursday that he had "grave, very deep concerns" about Huawei's involvement in Britain's 5G upgrade.
Speaking to The Times, Williamson said Britain must recognise "the Chinese state does sometimes act in a malign way" and should look at the tech company's involvement very closely.
"We’ve got to look at what partners such as Australia and the U.S. are doing in order to ensure that they have the maximum security of that 5G network and we’ve got to recognise the fact, as has been recently exposed, that the Chinese state does sometimes act in a malign way," he said in the interview.
It comes after the head of the MI6 intelligence service, Alex Younger, said recently that the government had to "decide the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies".
BT has said it will not use Huawei’s equipment in the heart of its 5G mobile network but it will use the Chinese company’s phone mast antennas and other items not part of the core of the service. BT also confirmed that it would remove Huawei's tech from the core of its 3G and 4G tech.
Earlier this month, New Zealand banned a local network from using Huawei's 5G tech due to these security concerns.
Huawei denies having any ties to the Chinese government but there are claims they might be working together to target international commercial secrets.