(CN) — In a major win for President Donald Trump, the United Kingdom is banning Chinese technology giant Huawei from its 5G network and sending a strong signal that Britain sees its future tied ever more closely to Washington, its old transatlantic ally.
On Tuesday, the British government cited security concerns and new U.S. sanctions on Huawei as it announced a ban on the cutting-edge Chinese company's 5G technology in the U.K.
Trump took credit for the U.K.'s decision at a Rose Garden news conference later Tuesday, saying “I did this myself for the most part.” Trump called Huawei a “big security risk.” At the same news conference, Trump further intensified his clash with China by stripping Hong Kong of its preferential trading status. Trump is making toughness against China central to his re-election campaign.
This is a pivotal year for Britain as it positions itself on the global stage following its departure from the European Union in January and heads toward a potentially dramatic split from the EU at the end of the year. The EU and the U.K. are in tough trade talks over their future relationship, but those talks are not going well, leaving open the possibility the U.K. and EU may not strike a deal before 2021 and break ties in acrimony.
Britain's Huawei ban carries with it geopolitical implications as the nuclear-armed former imperial power sides with the U.S. in its ever more combative stance against China, which many experts warn is turning into a new Cold War. The ban on Huawei follows other recent actions taken by the U.K. infuriating China, including an invitation to allow Hong Kong citizens to emigrate to the U.K. and pledging to send a new warship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, to the contested South China Sea next year.
Enraging China poses the risk of Chinese retaliation and that could further damage a U.K. already suffering from economic uncertainty due to Brexit and reeling from Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak, which has caused more than 45,000 deaths in Britain and economic shocks.
On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian shot back at the U.K.'s Huawei decision.
“It's a litmus test for the direction where the U.K. markets would go after Brexit, and whether the U.K. businesses in China will be provided with an open, fair and non-discriminate environment,” Zhao said.
China's ambassador to the U.K., Liu Xiaoming, called the Huawei ban “disappointing” and “wrong,” saying trust between China and the U.K. had been undermined.
He added: “It has become questionable whether the U.K. can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from other countries.”
Major British companies are doing business in China, including oil giant BP, alcohol maker Diageo, pharmaceutical colossal GlaxoSmithKline, InterContinental Hotels and Jaguar Land Rover.
After Brexit, Britain's leaders have said they want to use their new freedom to strike trade deals around the world, including with China. But this week's developments give the sense that the U.K. under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Trump ally and ardent pro-Brexit politician, is ready to turn its back on China and even Europe in order to forge an even closer relationship with the U.S.
Britain is simultaneously in talks with the EU and the U.S. on securing post-Brexit trade deals, but it may be difficult to strike deals with both the U.S. and EU due to an array of conflicts.
Besides banning new Huawei 5G technology starting in 2021, the British government gave its telecommunications companies until 2027 to rip out existent Huawei 5G technology, a major reversal from a January decision to partially bar Huawei from the U.K. A large and influential group of hardline Conservatives are pushing Johnson to speed up the removal of existent Huawei 5G technology and even take out Huawei kits related to earlier internet systems, such as 4G and 3G.