The UK says it will not ban Huawei from providing key technology for its 5G network, despite warnings from the United States the company poses a national security threat.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday (local time) that "high-risk vendors" such as Huawei would be allowed to play a role in non-sensitive parts of the country's 5G network, reports Reuters.
Companies classed as "high risk" would only be able to be used for a maximum of 35 percent of the network, and would also be banned from all critical network elements and locations such as nuclear sites or military bases.
The UK's government's decision has angered the US, which has accused the company of being a spy front for the Chinese government.
"This decision has the potential to jeopardize US-UK intelligence sharing agreements and could greatly complicate a US-UK free trade agreement," Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted. "I hope the British government will reconsider its decision."
Huawei's 5G technology has also caused controversy in New Zealand.
Last year, in a letter to GCSB Minister Andrew Little and Communications Minister Kris Faafoi, the company threatened to pull out of the New Zealand market if it was prevented from working on 5G upgrades here.
That came after the GSCB rejected Spark's proposed 5G network using Huawei cellphone tower equipment in 2018 due to risks to national security.
Little responded to the letter from Huawei by saying the company was going about things in the wrong way, and discouraged them from trying such threatening tactics.
"It is not to work with the Government and try to leverage their commercial interest and commercial advantage by heavying the Government," Little said at the time.
"The way [Huawei] get to work out a place for them and enhance their commercial interest is to work with their client, in this case Spark."
