Should we be worried about Huawei’s UK 5G involvement?

Long running concerns over Huawei involvement in the UK’s 5G network have been reignited by claims from the US government that any such arrangement would impact intelligence sharing.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been expected to make a decision in the coming weeks over whether to allow Chinese firm Huawei to supply elements of the UK’s 5G infrastructure.

However, whilst UK intelligence services have advised the government that the firm’s involvement in “non-core” elements of the system would not present a security risk, a dossier presented by Donald Trump’s deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger warns that it would be “madness” to rely on Huawei technology.

Although UK officials have stressed that they remain comfortable with Huawei’s proposed involvement, the US intervention, based on concerns that the Chinese state could introduce “back doors” into the 5G technology, puts pressure on the PM to review the UK’s support for such a deal.

What do you think? Should the UK accept the findings of its own intelligence community and press ahead with the deal, or should it heed the Trump administration’s warnings? Is the threat being overplayed by the US as a pre-emptive measure against Chinese 5G dominance, or is the possibility of foreign interference in a future pillar of UK communications infrastructure too great to allow Huawei any involvement?

It’s a complex issue where politics, power and technology intersect, and we want to hear the thoughts of Engineer readers. Have your say in this week’s poll and join the debate in the comments below. As always, comments are moderated, and any comments not meeting our guidelines will not be published.

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Provided by: The Engineer.