An advertisement of Huawei Nova 9 in Beijing Photo: VCG

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday criticized the UK's ban on Huawei as a move by some forces in the country to ingratiate themselves with "a certain country," and suggested the UK side to offer an explanation. 

"Driven by selfish political gains, certain individuals and forces in the UK have fawned upon a certain country and overstretched the concept of national security to suppress a specific Chinese company at the cost of their own people's access to 5G technology. Such acts harm others without benefiting itself," Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson, told a press briefing in Beijing.

Zhao made comments when he was asked about recent remarks from some UK and other foreign former officials, who questioned the UK's decision to ban Huawei.  

Former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani said not long ago that a British business executive told him that the UK had planted their people in Huawei, who "scrubbed" everything but only to find out that Huawei is not a threat, but several months later, the UK "capitulated" under US pressure.

Zhao said he had noticed relevant news reports and wanted to hear an explanation from the UK. 

UK media recently commented that the decision of banning Huawei will seriously stall UK's 5G rollout targets, according to Zhao. Oliver Dowden, Minister without Portfolio and former Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said the decision to remove Huawei has led to "a cumulative delay to 5G rollout of two to three years," Zhao noted.

Also, A survey by Oxford Economics shows that restricting a key supplier of 5G infrastructure like Huawei from helping to build UK's network would increase that country's 5G investment costs by between 9% and 29% over the next decade. 

The UK government announced in June 2020 plans to ban telecom equipment of Huawei starting from the end of the year, and it vowed to remove existing Huawei equipment from UK networks by 2027. 

Vince Cable, a former business and industry minister of the UK, said on January 10 that the UK's decision to ban Huawei's 5G equipment and services "had nothing to do with national security," and it was taken because of pressure from the US.

Global Times