MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Johnson defies US and grants Huawei a limited role in UK's mobile network

Johnson and Trump spoke by phone shortly after the British decision on Huawei 5G was made public

Prime Minister Boris Johnson granted Huawei a limited role in Britain's 5G mobile network on Tuesday, frustrating a global attempt by the United States to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from the West's next-generation communications.

Defying Britain's closest ally in favor of China on the eve of Brexit, Johnson ruled that “high-risk vendors” such as Huawei would be allowed into the non-sensitive parts of the 5G network.

Whilst such high-risk companies' involvement will be capped at 35%, they will be excluded from the sensitive core, where data is processed, and they will be banned from all critical networks and locations such as nuclear sites and military bases.

Such an explicit rejection of U.S. concerns that Huawei could be used to steal Western secrets dismayed President Donald Trump's administration but was welcomed by the Chinese firm, founded in 1987 by a former People's Liberation Army engineer.

Johnson and Trump spoke by phone shortly after the British decision was made public. “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,” the British government said in a statement.

Speaking before the call, a Trump administration official said: “There is no safe option for un-trusted vendors to control any part of a 5G network. ”We look forward to working with the UK on a way forward that results in the exclusion of un-trusted vendor components from 5G networks.“

But as a critical center for Chinese investment, trading and banking in Europe, Britain sided with Beijing, in one of the biggest public breaks with Washington in decades.

The United States had repeatedly warned London against allowing Huawei into 5G, arguing that the distinction between ”edge“ and ”core” will blur as data is processed throughout 5G networks, making it difficult to contain any security risks.