Huawei: US official warns ‘no safe level’ of involvement with tech giant

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PA

The US has warned that its intelligence sharing with other countries would have to be re-evaluated if those countries use Huawei to build their 5G networks.

Senior US official Rob Strayer said any such role for the firm posed an “unacceptable risk” to security.

It has been reported that the UK might allow the Chinese telecoms firm into the non-core parts of its 5G network.

But opponents of the plan have raised concerns about Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government.

Last week, a leak from the UK’s National Security Council indicated the government had decided to allow the Chinese telecoms firm to have a limited role in bringing 5G to the UK.

The US expressed serious concerns at the reports as, along with Australia and New Zealand, it says the Chinese firm is a security risk because of its ties to the state.

But China’s ambassador in London Liu Xiaoming said Britain should resist pressure from other nations, and that the company had a “good track record on security”.

‘Stakes couldn’t be higher’

Mr Strayer, the deputy assistant secretary for cyber and international communications at the US state department, said: “If countries put unsecure and untrusted vendors into their 5G networks, in any place, we’re letting countries know that we’re going to have to consider the risk that that produces to our information-sharing arrangements with them.

“We’ll evaluate that risk. At this point, though, we can’t make any firm commitments about how that’s going to affect our information sharing relationship in the future.”

5G is the next – and fifth – generation of mobile internet connectivity, promising much faster data download and upload speeds, wider coverage and more stable connections.

It promises download speeds 10 to 20 times faster than we have now.

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Rob Strayer said a “truly monumental decision” was being made

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Strayer said: “We think the stakes couldn’t be higher with regard to 5G technology, because of all of the things we build out over the coming years on top of that tech.

“This is truly a monumental decision being made now… we think there’s unacceptable risk in letting untrusted vendors provide that base infrastructure because they could disrupt any of those critical services.

“In addition we’re concerned about the ability for a government that has the track record… that China has, to potentially have access to that massive increase in data, personal data in many cases, that could be used in nefarious ways.”

He earlier told journalists that even allowing an “untrustworthy” operator into the “edges” of the network created risks of espionage or sabotage.

He added: “We should be concerned about all parts of the 5G network. No part of the 5G network should have parts or software coming from a vendor that could be under the control of an authoritarian government.”

It is understood that telecoms operators, who use Huawei equipment in their networks, have been asked to attend a meeting with officials at the US Embassy in London on Tuesday.

Mr Strayer is understood to be travelling to the UK for the talks.

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