UK’s move to exclude Huawei’s 5G gear damages mutual trust: FM
Global Times
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People visit the booth of Chinese tech company Huawei at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Guo Qiuda)

The UK's new bill to ban Huawei from participating in its 5G mobile network is a baseless crackdown on Chinese companies that follows in US footsteps, which will negatively impact the mutual trust basis of China-UK cooperation, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday.

"Without any evidence, the UK side, in tandem with the US, continues to discriminate and crack down on Chinese companies, using the pretext of the groundless national security rationale," Zhao said.

"The UK side blatantly violated economic and free trade principles, severely impedes normal operation of Chinese companies and impacts trust between China and the UK," Zhao said. The openness, fairness and security of foreign investment in the UK is now facing serious concerns, he said.

The comment came as the UK unveiled a new security law on Tuesday that bans Huawei's gear in the UK's 5G mobile network. Amid pressure from the US, the new bill calls for complete removal of Huawei telecom equipment from the country's entire 5G networks by 2027.

British telecommunications companies which fail to meet deadlines for higher security requirements could face a heavy fine, at 10 percent of their turnover, or more than 100,000 pound ($133,460) a day.

The UK Telecommunications Security Bill is politically motivated and not based on a fair evaluation of the risk environment.

It's disappointing that the British govt is looking to exclude Huawei from its 5G rollout, Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang commented on latest move of UK on imposing heavy fines on telecom firms if they fail to abide by the government's Huawei ban.