As the National Security Council meets today to discuss Huawei, it has to move fast on a problem which has been around, less than half-acknowledged, for more than 15 years. When they first involved Huawei in our 4G network, British officials seemed to have seen it as so uncontroversial that they did not even tell ministers it was happening. They let Beijing’s Trojan horse within our walls and patted it admiringly on its flanks. So those same officials, including the current Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, now want to press ahead with Huawei for 5G, almost as if nothing had happened.

Their preferred solution seems to be a compromise in which we take “non-core” bits of Huawei, although it is highly contestable whether there is such a thing as ”non-core” in this context. We shall succeed in annoying the Americans by going ahead with Huawei, and also annoying the Chinese by telling them that, even though we are still buying some of their services, we do not trust them. That is not statecraft.

Surely the solution must be strategically right before it can be technically justified. “Five Eyes” is the name given to our closest intelligence and security relationship – with the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. We are getting perilously close to a situation in which we force a choice between Five Eyes or 5G.

The Five Eyes relationship has actually become even more important in recent years, because the world has moved into an uneasy era. China has become a positively hostile power. It directly persecutes territories within its own sphere, such as Hong Kong. Its Belt and Road Initiative extends its tentacles to the connection points of world trade, such as ports. The Western democracies need to stand together against it. The Five Eyes need to scan the horizon even more closely; and not only the horizon, but also China’s activities within our own countries. It is because of China’s attempts to buy political power and use cyber espionage in Australia that successive Australian governments have got so tough over Huawei.

Out of security and intelligence trust flows political trust (and vice versa). It seems incredible that this should be put at risk by the very means we have chosen to improve our security coverage and business connectivity. If we do not trust China – and we rightly don’t – how can we let it get near our security?