Huawei: Former spy boss warns of 'security risks to UK' from Chinese tech firm's involvement in 5G network
Ex-MI6 director Sir Richard Dearlove's warning came as Donald Trump blocked the company from US networks over espionage fears
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The involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in the the new 5G telecoms network represents a “potential security risk to the UK”, the former head of MI6 has warned.
Chinese access to the hi-tech network could place Beijing’s Communist regime in a “potentially advantageous exploitative position” towards the UK, said Sir Richard Dearlove.
In a foreword to a report for the Atlanticist thinktank the Henry Jackson Society, the former director of the Secret Intelligence Service, described reports that the Government is ready to permit Huawei to bid for “non-core” elements of the project as “deeply worrying”.
And he said: “I very much hope there is time for the UK Government - and the probability as I write of a new Prime Minister - to reconsider the Huawei decision.”
The ex-spy’s warning came as President Donald Trump declared a “national economic emergency” over IT risks, issuing an executive order apparently aimed at excluding Huawei from US networks.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on American pressure on allies not to let the company into their sensitive systems during a visit to Downing Street last week.
Leaks of a National Security Council meeting last month at which Theresa May reportedly overruled objections to Huawei’s involvement in 5G led to the dismissal of Gavin Williamson as defence secretary. A string of ministers have since insisted that a review of the security implications continues and no decision has been taken.
Sir Richard said: “The fact that the British Government … appears to have decided to place the development of some its most sensitive critical infrastructure in the hands of a company from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is deeply worrying. The PRC uses its
sophisticated technical capabilities not only to control its own population (to an extreme and growing degree) but it also conducts remotely aggressive intelligence gathering operations on a global scale.
“No part of the Communist Chinese state is ultimately able to operate free of the control exercised by its Communist Party leadership. This is a simple statement of fact, not an opinion.
“Therefore, we must conclude the engagement of Huawei presents a potential security risk to the UK.”
Sir Richard, who led MI6 from 1999-2004, said that analysis of Huawei’s record provided “a clear absence of the certainties that could lead us to conclude that our concerns about the company are either exaggerated or misplaced”.
While the UK Government has a relationship with the company stretching back almost 20 years, the introduction of 5G represents a technological “step change” in terms of risk which will have “far reaching implications for the UK’s national security and almost every aspect of
the country’s civic life”, he said.
“We should remind ourselves that China’s military strategists perceive a world in which the military and the civilian will be fused into a single plane of conflict. The ability to control communications and the data that flows through its channels will be the route to exercise power over
societies and other nations.
“To place the PRC in a potentially advantageous exploitative position in the UK’s future telecommunications systems therefore is a risk, however remote it may seem at the moment, we simply do not need to take.”
Responding to Mr Trump’s executive order, Mrs May’s official spokesman said: “We are reviewing the right policy approach for 5G and when an announcement is ready the Culture Secretary will update Parliament.
“We are committed to ensuring UK telecoms networks are fully secure and any decision will be supported by a hard-headed, technically informed assessment of the risk.”
The report, co-authored by Conservative MP and military academic Bob Seely, found that Huawei’s involvement could have “significant” implications for the UK’s relations with Five Eyes intelligence partners the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
“There will be damage to the symbolic unity of the Western alliance, but there are also additional dangers of Chinese-led cyber interference operations inside the UK,” said the report.
“The ‘hacking’ of parliaments in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK are as likely to have been about hacking democracy as they were about hacking the institutions.”
Huawei has vehemently denied involvement in spying and said blocking it from doing business in the US would hamper the development of next-
generation technology.
"We are ready and willing to engage with the US government and come up with effective measures to ensure product security," the company said in a statement.
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