Downing Street ditches Huawei as Tories toughen up on China

The Prime Minister has U-turned on allowing Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G network, foreseeing that the Telecoms Infrastructure Bill, which would have given Huawei the go-ahead, would have been defeated in the Commons.

In a statement to MPs the Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said: “From the end of this year, telecoms operators must not buy any 5G equipment from Huawei, and once the Telecoms Security Bill is passed it will be illegal for them to do so.”

Dowden added: “We have concluded that it is necessary and indeed prudent to commit to a timetable for the removal of Huawei equipment from our 5G network by 2027. Let me be clear, this requirement will be set out in law by the Telecoms Security Bill. By the time of the next election, we will have implemented in law an irreversible path for the complete removal of Huawei equipment from our 5G networks.”

Although this expeditious ban on procurement meets one of the demands of backbench rebels, there remain concerns over other aspects of the plan. Primarily, the seven year timetable provided for the removal of current equipment is too long for many rebels to stomach. There will be at least one UK general election and two US presidential elections before the deadline, allowing future governments to reverse the decision.

David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary and a leading Huawei critic, told Reaction that the government is moving in the right direction, but “whether they need to go to 2027, I’m not sure.”

He anticipates amendments to the timetable in the Telecoms Infrastructure Bill. Another source close to the rebels was frank: “They said it’s about cost, but they’ve also just handed a billion pounds to Richard Branson. It’s bollocks.”

Another of the rebels’ concerns is over Huawei’s continued involvement in 3G and 4G networks, with nothing in the Culture Secretary’s statement to suggest that any action would be taken to reduce Huawei’s capacity there. While the difference between the core security element and the non-core commercial element is more clearly defined in non-5G networks, rebels argue that even the mildest threat to critical national infrastructure should be barred.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, who remains influential on the Tory back benches, said:

“Having said he’s getting rid of them in 5G, in 4G and 3G Huawei apparently are fine. They can go on for as long as anyone, and they will be upgraded in software upgrades for the next decade. So if they are a risk in 5G, why are they not a risk to us generally?”

This question of a more general risk to British infrastructure – intensified by China’s increasingly belligerent attitude – will shape future battles over a wide range of Chinese products and investment. There will likely be calls for reviews into the Chinese government’s involvement in Britain’s nuclear industry, with power stations such as Hinkley Point C in Somerset and Bradwell B in Essex already becoming the new targets of backbenchers’ ire.

“The only safeguards currently proposed for Bradwell B are the same as for any nuclear power station. They are wholly inadequate. At present, China will finance, build, own and operate Bradwell B”, Sir Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chair of the Liaison Committee recently wrote on Conservative Home.

He told BBC Essex: “You don’t want the Chinese suddenly switching off a major nuclear power station because they’re having a row with the British government”.

With the Brexit debate settled by the 2019 election, foreign policy influencers on the Conservative back benches appear to have shifted their focus towards the Asia-Pacific. They want China to be regarded as a geopolitical adversary and have organised powerful lobbying groups to influence their colleagues in government.

Tom Tugendhat, a leading foreign policy thinker in the parliamentary party and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, now chairs the China Research Group. The caucus is named in the style of the European Research Group, the pro-Brexit faction of Conservative backbenchers. It is developing research papers, policy proposals, and campaigns targeted at countering China.

In a still more targeted effort, Bob Seely now leads a group of 60 MPs in the Huawei Interest Group, which focuses solely on reducing the tech company’s ties to British networks.

These efforts have had a significant impact on government policy. As Ben Judah notes in the Washington Post, today’s decision is part of an Sino-sceptic trend in British foreign policy.

It follows the opening of a new pathway to citizenship to three million Hongkongers, commitments to put the Five Eyes intelligence network at the heart of an effort to contain China, and efforts to form a new D-10 block of democracies to push back against authoritarianism. These moves have surprised Brussels, impressed Washington, and incensed China.

Nathan Law, a pro-democracy Hong Kong activist who recently fled to London, tweeted: “Huawei is set to be excluded from UK 5G. Very decent move and a strong bipartisan effort. Expecting more of this coming. Goodbye state company and Chinese surveillance. The world is more and more aware of the dangers of CCP.”

Huawei UK, which claims to be independent of the Chinese government, took a less positive tone:

“This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘levelling up’ the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider,” the company said.

Huawei is right about the cost of removing their equipment, but that is a price the Conservative party is willing for Britain to pay.