This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The UK should exercise “a degree of caution” about the role of large Chinese companies such as Huawei, Jeremy Hunt has said.

The foreign secretary raised concerns about Chinese laws requiring firms to co-operate with Beijing’s intelligence agencies, saying: “We have to weigh those considerations very carefully.”

Q&A What is Huawei and why is its role in 5G so controversial? Show Hide Fast-growing Huawei is arguably China’s first global multinational. The Shenzhen-based company makes mobile phones, base stations and the intelligent routers that facilitate communications around the world. But its success increasingly concerns the US, which argues Huawei is ultimately beholden to the Chinese Communist party and has the capability to engage in covert surveillance where its equipment is used. Huawei is by some distance the world’s largest supplier of telecoms equipment with an estimated 28% market share in 2019. It was also the second largest phone maker in 2019, after Samsung and ahead of Apple. But Australia banned Huawei from 5G in 2018, with its spy agencies declaring they were worried the company could shut down power networks and other parts of its infrastructure in a diplomatic crisis. Trump banned US companies from working with Huawei last year and has strenuously lobbied others to follow suit, venting “apoplectic fury” in a phone call to Boris Johnson after the UK agreed to allow the Chinese company into 5G. The company had successfully targeted the UK early on. It has supplied BT since 2003 and gradually expanded to the point where it agreed to create a special unit in Banbury, known as the Cell, where the spy agency GCHQ could review and monitor its software code. Vodafone is another key customer. Britain’s intelligence agencies said in January that any Huawei risk could be managed as long as the company was not allowed to have a monopoly. As a result, Boris Johnson concluded Huawei’s market share should be capped at 35% for forthcoming high-speed 5G networks. In July 2020 the UK position changed, and it was announced that Huawei is to be stripped out of Britain’s 5G phone networks by 2027. Oliver Dowden, the UK culture secretary, also announced that no new Huawei 5G kit can be bought after 31 December 2020 – but said that older 2G, 3G and 4G kit can remain until it is no longer needed. Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

A Whitehall leak inquiry is under way after details emerged of a National Security Council (NSC) meeting at which Theresa May was said to have given the green light for the Chinese tech giant to help build “non-core” parts of the UK’s 5G communications network.

“We are right to have a degree of caution about the role of large Chinese companies because of the degree of control the Chinese state is able to exercise over them in the way that would not be possible if they were large western companies,” Hunt told the Daily Telegraph.

“That doesn’t mean to say that their role is automatically malign, but there are things like the 2017 law which requires all Chinese companies, whatever their ownership, to co-operate with Chinese intelligence services on any occasion.

I would be very happy for anyone to look at my phone, as would my trusted special adviser Jeremy Hunt

“Obviously, as we come to our decision, we have to weigh those considerations very carefully.”

The foreign secretary was among the ministers reported to have objected to Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s 5G network, according to the leak of the NSC meeting to the Telegraph.

Hunt said he had been questioned by officials as part of a leak probe ordered by cabinet secretary and national security adviser, Sir Mark Sedwill, and said he is prepared to hand over his phone.

“I would be very happy for anyone to look at my phone, as would my trusted special adviser,” he said.

Other ministers present who also reportedly objected to Huawei’s involvement were the home secretary, Sajid Javid; the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson; the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt; and the international trade secretary, Liam Fox.

The defence minister, Tobias Ellwood, also urged caution on Huawei, writing in the Telegraph: “The debate over Huawei masks the need for a more urgent and significant conversation about China’s place at the international table which must include gaining agreement on an operational framework to support future security and trade relationships.

“Until these wider geopolitical issues are resolved, we should be cautious over granting Huawei direct access to our networks.”

Some of the UK’s closest allies have blocked Huawei from work on their own networks because of security concerns.

Where is Huawei banned from working on critical networks? Read more

The US has banned Huawei from its government networks and Australia also has restrictions in place, but there is no united position within the Five Eyes intelligence alliance which also includes the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Beijing’s ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, defended Huawei and questioned whether the UK would “choose independent decision-making or not”.

He urged the UK to resist “protectionism” and added: “The last thing China expects from a truly open and fair ‘global Britain’ is a playing field that is not level.”