Trump on UK’s Huawei U-turn: ‘I did this myself’
US President Donald Trump has said he is responsible for the UK’s reversal on an earlier policy decision regarding Chinese tech firm Huawei.
The government said yesterday Huawei equipment must be purged completely from the UK’s 5G network by the end of 2027.
“We convinced many countries, many countries — I did this myself for the most part — not to use Huawei, because we think it’s an unsafe security risk, it’s a big security risk,” Trump told reporters at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden.
“I talked many countries out of using it: if they want to do business with us, they can’t use it. Just today, I believe that UK announced that they’re not going to be using it.”
Health secretary Matt Hancock today denied that Trump alone was responsible for the Huawei ban, telling Sky News: “Well, we all know Donald Trump, don’t we.”
Meanwhile China said Trump’s comments showed the move to ban Huawei was about geopolitics, rather than a security issue.
“This once again demonstrates that the relevant bans on Huawei are completely unrelated to national security, rather this is highly politicised manipulation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing.
“This once again allows everyone to see clearly the one who is issuing threats here, there and everywhere is perhaps not China but the US,” she said.
“Now I would even say this is not only disappointing — this is disheartening,” Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming told the Centre for European Reform, adding that Britain had “simply dumped this company”.
“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,” he said.
Huawei said yesterday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision would put Britain into the digital slow lane.