According to Reuters news on July 14, British Prime Minister Johnson ordered that Huawei equipment will be completely removed from the British 5G network by 2027. British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that starting from the end of 2020, it will be illegal for British telecom operators to purchase any 5G equipment from Huawei. In this regard, Reuters said that the British approach was to agree with the United States, but it angered China.
British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that this decision means that the launch of 5G in the UK will be delayed by two to three years and will increase costs by up to 2 billion pounds (about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars). Earlier on July 14, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stated at a press conference that the British Prime Minister was about to ban Huawei technology from participating in 5G construction and expressed whether it could provide open, fair and non-discriminatory services to Chinese companies in the UK. The business environment is a touchstone for the direction of the British market after Brexit, and is also a benchmark for the safety of Chinese investment in the UK. China will pay close attention to it.
In January this year, the British government announced that it would allow Huawei to participate in the construction of the British 5G network to a limited extent. However, after the outbreak of the new coronavirus, anti-China sentiment in British politics gradually increased, and more Conservative MPs began to put pressure on Johnson, demanding that the UK "get rid of its dependence on China" and ban Huawei as soon as possible. However, the Financial Times stated that Johnson is still fighting against opposition to Huawei within the British Conservative Party.
The British "Times" previously reported that it is "impossible" to remove all Huawei technology from the British mobile network because of the huge cost and the current network equipment of Nokia and Ericsson must replace Huawei. Not very realistic. But it is clear that Johnson has now given in. According to a Reuters report, the Johnson administration plans to ban Huawei for political reasons rather than security reasons. In addition to facing dual pressure from the Conservative Party and the Labor Party, the UK's change in attitude towards Huawei also stems from the fact that the United States has been urging the UK to jointly suppress Huawei. After Brexit, the UK is eager to reach a trade agreement with the United States to boost and ease the economic problems it will face.