Jul 15, 2020, 11:21
UK govt decision to cut Chinese firm out of networks seen as shortsighted
One member of the United Kingdom Parliament called it a "car crash for the digital economy". Huawei said it was "bad news for anyone in the United Kingdom with a mobile phone".
Descriptions vary, but few deny that the UK government's decision to ban Chinese telecommunications company Huawei as a 5G supplier will have a monumental impact on the future of technology in Britain.
On Tuesday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that British mobile operators will no longer be allowed to source kit from Huawei, as imminent United States sanctions threaten to disrupt the company's supply chain. Dowden also said that existing Huawei 5G hardware would be removed from network infrastructure.
Dowden then announced a surprisingly unforgiving timeline for these measures. Among the world's largest technology companies, Huawei provides UK vendors with around one-third of their network equipment, and mobile operator BT has said it would need a five-year warning of a Huawei boycott in order to source enough kit from elsewhere. Dowden said the ban comes into effect at the end of 2020, with existing Huawei 5G kit to be removed by 2027.
Dowden conceded that the move would come at great cost to the UK economy and would significantly hold up 5G development. He estimated that the ban will delay the rollout of 5G in Britain by two to three years at a cost of 2 billion pounds ($2.5 billion).
Some in Parliament questioned if this figure was optimistic, referring to separate estimates from industry analysts of losses of up to 7 billion pounds.
Shadow digital minster Chi Onwurah said that the government's handling of Huawei had created a "car crash for the digital economy, but one that would have been visible from outer space".
The UK has also effectively hamstrung itself in the race to achieve widespread 5G, and all the supplementary benefits that technological milestone will bring, according to Ed Brewster, a spokesman for Huawei UK.
"This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone," Brewster said. "It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide."
On Monday, Huawei UK Chairman John Browne announced he would step down from the role, likely in anticipation of the government's ruling.
Leaving its impact aside, many observers are left questioning the motivation behind this act of national self-harm. The move comes as US sanctions on Huawei set for activation in September will effectively cut off Huawei's access to semiconductors made with US equipment.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a meeting with his National Security Council on Tuesday morning, where he was advised that the sanctions, announced in May, would impact the reliability of Huawei as a 5G provider.
"The UK can no longer be confident it will be able to guarantee the security of future Huawei 5G equipment," Dowden told Parliament.
Johnson's decision represents an about-face on previous policy made in January, when he ignored drawn-out lobbying from Washington for a Huawei boycott, instead opting to allow the company to continue operations in the UK in a restricted capacity.
Onwurah said that the government's approach to Huawei has been "incomprehensibly negligent". She asked for the Johnson administration to publish the security advice on which the most recent decision was taken, including what new information the government was given that was not available when the earlier determination was made to allow Huawei to continue its UK operations.
"The secretary of state (Dowden) has said that this change is in response to US sanctions, but in the past, he has emphasized how closely he was working with the United States," Onwurah said. "So were the sanctions a surprise, and is our security policy being led by the US?"
Huawei UK spokesman Brewster said he regrets that the company's future in the UK "has become politicized".
"This is about US trade policy and not security," Brewster said. "Instead of levelling up the government is leveling down and we urge them to reconsider. We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK."
Following the announcement of the ban, Assembly Research founder Matthew Howett, who oversaw an influential 2019 review of the potential impact of a Huawei boycott, wrote on Twitter: "I hope we at least get that US trade deal".
In Parliament on Tuesday, Dowden spoke on the Huawei ban "in the context of the United Kingdom's wider relationship with China".
"This government is clear eyed about China," he said. "What we want is a modern and mature relationship with China, based on mutual respect where we are able to speak frankly when we disagree, but also to work side by side with China on the issues where our interests converge."
The poodle state has now admitted that the Great Satan pressure contributed to the ban. The alternatives of Ericsson and Nokia use Huawei technology anyway. But the bigotry is blatant.
Even western commentators have noted there is zero evidence and the last time the Great Satan blocked Huawei and ZTE, they admitted they only had suspicions. Then they extorted cash out of ZTE after they reneged on the JCPOA.
In protest, I've bought a Huawei smartphone and it's very good. You can imagine cave men fighting over it even though they wouldn't know what it was; it's THAT beautiful. You would never imagine the Great Satan or poodle manufacturing such a high quality product. Luckily the EMUI overlay seems to eradicate all the bugs in Android. I really wanted a Hongmeng o/s but the ban by Google seems to be fake and only Android is being offered.
Instead they make Boeing 737 MAX flying turds, Tesla self-crashing, self-immolating death pods and bug-ridden and REALLY crude Microkrap Windows.
We know the poodle state couldn't give a Victoria Nuland about Hong Kong Chinese or Uighurs. It commits a war crime by selling arms to Saudi Arabia where two committees of their own goons & thugs claim there is "overwhelming" evidence of war crimes. They admitted only 120 unaccompanied minors from the war in Syria, which they started, into the land that they thieved and that's over ten years. They issued fake passports which were really just 6 month visas. Yet they now claim they'll accept 3m Hong Kong violent protesters.
"In Parliament on Tuesday, Dowden spoke on the Huawei ban "in the context of the United Kingdom's wider relationship with China".
"This government is clear eyed about China," he said. "What we want is a modern and mature relationship with China, based on mutual respect where we are able to speak frankly when we disagree, but also to work side by side with China on the issues where our interests converge."
Well, if Dowden could speak on the ban with such a pretentious plea, then we can also act accordingly by holding off further co-operative ventures in the larger context of building any projects that would modernize the UK's infrastructure. If they want to do it later, it will be at many many times the cost of doing it now.
Should a wait-and-see relief period of six months' duration be provided until U.S. presidential election results are known in November? I don't think so -- in the long term, the UK will not be a reliable partner. The Boris Johnson decision was the crucial one and it's water under the bridge by now. You can try -- but don't say you haven't been warned.
Boris has gone back on his word yes, and HKshould be left for China to sort out without interference. I think cameron was on the right path there, but it seems the strong ties achieved by him and the golden future relations have been badly damaged....
Still if true what everyone is saying......its not china that will suffer but the uk, so we will have to see how this all this pans out.....
Many should know how Lee Iacocca turned Chrysler into a highly profitable company!
He told then US President Jimmy Carter that with only two automobile manufacturers in US, then consumers will be at their mercy. Hence, the need to have three manufacturers was well justified. Reason is then there will be competition in the economy.
Today, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson betrayed UK by listening to US. What a shame! Johnson is not schooled in economics nor he is really qualified to be prime minister. Like Trump, he will lead UK down the drain!
CHEERS AND CONGRATULATIONS!
CELEBRATIONS!
There are different types and gradations of loyalty in this world -- it could be between lovers; between parent and child, amongst friends and colleagues, or even between humans and animals.
Nothing exists in a vacuum and the reason why loyalty has persisted in our world is that it offers survival advantages to the species having such a quality in the evolutionary process of natural selection.
This camel here was sold to a distant land, but it managed to trudge back to its original owners after braving through untold environmental hardships. By the time it reached its previous owners, it showed multiple signs of traumatic and stressful injuries as well as malnutrition problems.
How do we humans fare on this score compared to the loyalty of this camel? With all the treachery and debauchery going on in intra-species relationships, it is time to adopt a new standard emphasizing loyalty as one of the supportive emblems of a universal code of conduct.
The attainment of such a goal might take time, but it will come if humans can put their minds to it, or else the only alternative is extinction.
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Following the announcement of the ban, Assembly Research founder Matthew Howett, who oversaw an influential 2019 review of the potential impact of a Huawei boycott, wrote on Twitter: "I hope we at least get that US trade deal".
In Parliament on Tuesday, Dowden spoke on the Huawei ban "in the context of the United Kingdom's wider relationship with China".
"This government is clear eyed about China," he said. "What we want is a modern and mature relationship with China, based on mutual respect where we are able to speak frankly when we disagree, but also to work side by side with China on the issues where our interests converge."
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It is so damn difficult to get an iota of what these politicians are chatting about or do they "want to eat the huge cake and keep some crumbs in their pockets " ?
Going backward in its telecommunication world is an obvious choice of Johnson by "kowtowing" to US pressures though UK had denied it ( to save face ). BREXIT is still in the making and UK will feel public angst and national hardships, economically and financially overtime, till it can understand its own importance first rather than "America First " by placing UK to play "the second or third or forth fiddle".
At the end of the day, their 5-EYE chieftain calls the shots for UK, Australia, Canada and perhaps a more rational NZ ; although they prefer to risk their own national goals by retarding in economical and technological advantages in their regional arenas.
But the the west "acts in terms of conflict" against China without ceasing. Should it go unchallenged? In your case, China would be accused of being guilty also for not speaking up. It is "damned if you do and damned if you don't", isn't it. How convenient!
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