(Adds Huawei comment)
LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - China is using telecoms giant
Huawei to try to drive a wedge between Britain and the
United States, Republican senator Tom Cotton told British
lawmakers on Tuesday.
Cotton is one of several members of the U.S. Congress who
have sought to put pressure on Britain to reverse its January
decision to give China's Huawei a limited role in building
Britain's 5G networks.
"It is my hope that the special relationship remains strong
although I fear China is attempting to drive a hi-tech wedge
between us using Huawei," Cotton told the British parliament's
defence committee.
The United States has raised security concerns about Huawei
equipment, saying it could be used to steal Western secrets, and
has warned that allies that use it in their networks risked
being cut off from valuable intelligence sharing. Huawei has
repeatedly denied the U.S. allegations.
Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang said: "It's clear that
market position, rather than security concerns, is what
underpins America's attack on Huawei. The committee was given no
evidence to substantiate security allegations."
Britain has said Huawei's involvement will be capped at 35%
and it will be excluded from the network's sensitive core.
Last month, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that, in
the wake of the coronavirus crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson
had asked officials to plan to reduce China's involvement in
British 5G infrastructure to zero by 2023.
"I do hope that as the government refines its decision, that
if it doesn’t reverse it outright, it will mitigate it and
minimise the use of Huawei technology, put it on a shorter time
frame," Cotton said.
"I would welcome that decision to go to zero by 2023 and I
would urge you to try and do so even sooner."
Since Britain's decision on Huawei, relations between London
and Beijing have grown tense over the situation in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, Britain said Beijing should step back from
introducing a national security law in Hong Kong which it said
was in breach of the 1984 agreement marking the handover of its
former colony to China.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Angus
MacSwan and Mark Potter)
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