- UK’s Move Disappointing, Disheartening Says China
Following the ban of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, a Chinese multinational technology company from the 5G network, China has warned that the move will have severe economic implications for the United Kingdom.
This is even as Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming while addressing the Centre for European Reform labeled the move as not only disappointing – but is disheartening, not before adding that Britain had simply dumped Huawei.
Similarly, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying raised an alarm that the safety of Chinese investment in the UK is being greatly threatened by the move from 10 Downing Street while labeling the UK a puppet of the United States of America.
“Does the UK want to maintain its independent status or be reduced to being a vassal of the United States, be the U.S.’s cat’s paw?” she said.
China, whose $15 trillion (11.8 trillion pounds) economy is five times the size of Britain’s, warned the decision would hurt investment as Chinese companies had watched as London “dumped” the national telecoms champion.
Britain has become increasingly reliant on Chinese imports. Some 9% of all goods imported into Britain in 2018 – worth 43 billion pounds ($54 billion) – came from China, double the proportion from 15 years earlier.
“The way you are treating Huawei is being followed very closely by other Chinese businesses, and it will be very difficult for other businesses to have the confidence to have more investment,” Xiaoming said.
Recall that The New Diplomat had earlier reported that United Kingdom’s Government had announced that Huawei’s networking equipment is to be phased out of the country’s 5G networks.
Telecoms operators were granted permission to buy new 5G telecoms equipment from the Chinese firm from January next year and will have seven years to remove its existing technology from their 5G infrastructure at an expected cost of £2 billion.
The announcement follows a new report about Huawei’s role in the UK’s national infrastructure from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.
Recall also that China and the United Kingdom had previously clashed over Hong-Kong with the two countries exchanging heated words.
