Total ban on China’s Huawei may be a mistake and it’s ‘more complicated than in or out’, Britain’s MI6 chief Alex Younger suggests
- Taking a softer approach to Huawei could put the UK at odds with some of its closest security counterparts, including its ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence allies
The head of the UK’s foreign-intelligence agency gave the strongest hint yet that he will not press for an outright ban on Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies.
MI6 chief Alex Younger said a shortage of equipment providers is a factor as Britain mulls how to balance security risks against its development of a fifth generation communications network.
“There are some practical points about the number of vendors who exist at the moment,” he told reporters in Munich on Friday. “It’s not inherently desirable that we have a monopolistic supplier of any of our critical national infrastructure. We should be aiming for the maximum diversity as a matter of good practice.”
A report on the resilience and security of Britain’s telecoms supply chains is due to conclude in March and Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright will use it to make recommendations to the National Security Council. Huawei faces bans in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US over fears the Chinese government could use its systems to spy on other countries.
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“We need to take a principles-based approach to this and the first is around quality,” Younger said. “This has got nothing to do with the country of origin; we should be insisting on the highest level of quality in any form of technology platform or service we choose to use and in particular security quality.”