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British Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed to help the Chinese company Huawei with the construction of 5G infrastructure in the country. This only applies to non-core infrastructure components, such as antennas and other network components.

The decision was made by the National Security Council, of which May is the president, reports The Verge. Other British politicians are very critical of this decision because they fear that Huawei has links with the Chinese government, exposing British citizens, companies and government institutions to cyber-attacks and espionage from China.

Prohibition

For this reason, Huawei has been in the spotlight for some time now. In the United States, a ban has already been imposed on the use of Huawei equipment by government agencies because of concerns about espionage. The US is lobbying Europe and other allies for the same ban. Australia and New Zealand have both banned the use of Huawei products in the telecommunications infrastructure.

The White House in December last year thought of a ban on companies in the country to use Huawei equipment in the construction of 5G networks. Such a ban has already been introduced in New Zealand, but it is not yet in place in the United States. When chief executive Donald Trump announced the 5G spectrum auction earlier this month, he said nothing about such a ban. Rumour has it, however, that it is still being discussed.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte recently announced that the cabinet has not yet made a decision on possible contributions by Chinese companies to the construction of the 5G network. In May, the government should adopt a broader strategy on how to deal with alleged espionage and economic relations with China. To this end, the government is awaiting an investigation from the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV), who earlier this month set up a task force to investigate the risks associated with 5G.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.