LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson
said Britain needed to protect its critical national
infrastructure from "hostile state vendors" when weighing what
role China's Huawei should play in the country's 5G network.
Officials at Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
have been studying the impact of U.S. measures announced in May,
which are intended to restrict Huawei's ability to source the
advanced microchips needed to produce its 5G equipment and
flagship smartphones.
"On Huawei, the position is very, very simple," Johnson told
reporters on Tuesday. "I'm not going to get drawn into
Sinophobia because I'm not a Sinophobe. On the other hand I do
want to see our critical national infrastructure properly
protected from hostile state vendors, so we need to strike that
balance and that's what we'll do."
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Paul Sandle; editing by Guy
Faulconbridge)