Johnson gives Huawei limited role in British 5G network, defies US to ban Chinese firm

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday included US-banned Huawei by giving it a limited role in the country’s 5G mobile network.

Johnson allowed “high-risk vendors” such as Huawei to partake in the non-sensitive parts of the 5G network of Britain. This means that Huawei will be excluded from sensitive processes of the 5G including data processing and be barred from going to nuclear sites and military bases.

After the public announcement of Huawei’s inclusion in Britain’s project, Johnson and the U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone. The British government said in a statement, “The Prime Minister underlined the importance of like-minded countries working together to diversify the market and break the dominance of a small number of companies.”

“We look forward to working with the UK on a way forward that results in the exclusion of untrusted vendor components from %G networks,” said a U.S. official before the phone call between the two leaders.

“I fear London has freed itself from Brussels only to cede sovereignty to Beijing,” said U.S. Senator Tom Cotton.