LONDON • Beijing lashed out yesterday at Britain's decision to ban Huawei equipment, saying London had become "America's dupe" and vowing to take measures to protect the interests of Chinese companies.
The British government bowed to growing US pressure and pledged on Tuesday to remove Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its 5G network by 2027, despite warnings of retaliation from Beijing.
"China will fully and solemnly assess this matter, and will take a series of necessary measures to safeguard Chinese companies' legitimate rights and interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said at a routine briefing.
"Any decisions and actions (by Britain) must come at a cost," Ms Hua said, without elaborating.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that the United States would impose visa restrictions on Chinese companies like Huawei, which he accused of facilitating human rights violations.
He also said telecommunications companies around the world "should consider themselves on notice" that if they do business with Huawei, "they are doing business with human rights abusers".
Mr Pompeo told a news conference that the US State Department would "impose visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally".
Mr Pompeo also said that "faster is always better" in terms of getting Huawei out of telecommunications infrastructure, when asked about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's order that Huawei equipment be purged completely from Britain's 5G network by the end of 2027.
In a separate statement referring to alleged abuses against China's minority Muslim population, Mr Pompeo charged that Huawei was "an arm of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China".
On Tuesday, in comments likely to do Mr Johnson few favours as he navigates the spat with China, US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington that he personally intervened in the British decision.
"We convinced many countries - many countries - and I did this myself, for the most part - not to use Huawei because we think it's an unsafe security risk," he said.
Yesterday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock sought to downplay Mr Trump's involvement during his morning media round.
"We all know Donald Trump don't we?" he told Sky News.
"All sorts of people can try to claim credit for the decision, but this was based on a technical assessment by the National Cyber Security Centre."
Mr Liu Xiaoming, China's envoy to Britain, called the decision "disappointing and wrong", and said it had become "questionable whether the UK can provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for companies from other countries".
"The UK has made the wrong decision, which severely undermines the Chinese company's interests and mutual trust between China and the UK - China strongly opposes that," said Ms Hua.
The British government has a choice, she said. "Will it remain independent or will it become a cat's paw for the US?"
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
