Pompeo presses Britain to take second look at Huawei 5G ruling

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday pressed the United Kingdom to reconsider its move to allow Huawei to play a role in its 5G mobile network. 

“We will make sure that when American information passes across a network, we are confident that that network is a trusted one,” Pompeo told reporters, according to Reuters. “Our view of Huawei is: putting it in your system creates real risk.”

“There is also a chance for the United Kingdom to relook at this as implementation moves forward,” Pompeo added.

Reuters noted that Pompeo will arrive in London later Wednesday, where he is scheduled to discuss telecommunications and security with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and British First Secretary of State Dominic Raab. 

Earlier this week, the U.K. announced that it will allow Huawei to play a limited role in its 5G mobile network, a decision that contradicts U.S. attempts to exclude the Chinese telecom giant from Western communication systems over security concerns.

Johnson told Parliament that he thinks it is “absolutely vital” that British citizens have access to the best technology available. 

“[W]e also [want to] do absolutely nothing to imperil our relationship with the United States, to do anything to compromise our critical national security infrastructure,” he added.

On Tuesday, U.S. lawmakers warned that the decision could compromise intelligence sharing between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

“Here’s the sad truth: our special relationship is less special now that the U.K. has embraced the surveillance state commies at Huawei,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.