After the United Kingdom decided to put ban on the Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei from participating in 5G roll out in the country, Chinese state media has forecast a “public and painful” retaliation against the UK even as the credit for the ban was apparently claimed by United States president Donald Trump.
China could not “remain passive”, said the Chinese state-run Global Times in an editorial after the decision of the UK to push out Huawei from the phone networks of the country by 2027. “It is necessary for China to retaliate against the UK, otherwise would we not be seen as easy to bully. Such retaliation should be public and painful for the UK,” the article said.
UK’s criticism of the decision of China to impose the controversial national security law in Hong Kong, a former British colony, has caused a chill in the relationship between London and Beijing over the past month. The UK has committed to supporting fleeing pro-democracy activists and protesters from Hong Kong.
Firm “countermeasures” will be taken by it in response, China has said.
At the same time a section of Chinese officials have tried to pin the blame of UK’s decision on the pressure from the United States which is indication that Chinese officials also appear are making an effort not to escalate UK-China tensions. If the UK puts a ban on Huawei would tarnish the UK’s reputation as independent from the US, China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, said earlier this month.
The decision was “disappointing and wrong”, Liu tweeted on Tuesday. While strongly opposing the decision of the UK over Huawei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the decision was driven more by the politicisation of commercial and technological issues and was not the result of any concerns over national security.
“It is not necessary to turn this into a China-UK confrontation. The UK is not the US, nor Australia, nor Canada. It is a relative ‘weak link’ in the Five Eyes. In the long run the UK has no reason to turn against China, with the Hong Kong issue fading out,” the Global Times editorial says.
Before the deadline, political conditions could change, tweeted The Global Times’ editor, Hu Xijin.
“UK can only completely remove Huawei by 2027, which indicates it’s difficult to leave Huawei. But there could be change before and after that.”
Credit for the UK decision on Huawei was claimed by Trump. In a press conference, Trump said that no White House “has been tougher on China” than his administration. “I did this myself, for the most part,” he said as he spoke of having worked to pressure countries to not use Huawei.
“If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it,” he added.
“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. It’s a big security risk,” he said. “I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it. Just today, I believe the UK announced that they’re not going to be using it. And that was up in the air for a long time, but they’ve decided.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
China could not “remain passive”, said the Chinese state-run Global Times in an editorial after the decision of the UK to push out Huawei from the phone networks of the country by 2027. “It is necessary for China to retaliate against the UK, otherwise would we not be seen as easy to bully. Such retaliation should be public and painful for the UK,” the article said.
UK’s criticism of the decision of China to impose the controversial national security law in Hong Kong, a former British colony, has caused a chill in the relationship between London and Beijing over the past month. The UK has committed to supporting fleeing pro-democracy activists and protesters from Hong Kong.
Firm “countermeasures” will be taken by it in response, China has said.
At the same time a section of Chinese officials have tried to pin the blame of UK’s decision on the pressure from the United States which is indication that Chinese officials also appear are making an effort not to escalate UK-China tensions. If the UK puts a ban on Huawei would tarnish the UK’s reputation as independent from the US, China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, said earlier this month.
The decision was “disappointing and wrong”, Liu tweeted on Tuesday. While strongly opposing the decision of the UK over Huawei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the decision was driven more by the politicisation of commercial and technological issues and was not the result of any concerns over national security.
“It is not necessary to turn this into a China-UK confrontation. The UK is not the US, nor Australia, nor Canada. It is a relative ‘weak link’ in the Five Eyes. In the long run the UK has no reason to turn against China, with the Hong Kong issue fading out,” the Global Times editorial says.
Before the deadline, political conditions could change, tweeted The Global Times’ editor, Hu Xijin.
“UK can only completely remove Huawei by 2027, which indicates it’s difficult to leave Huawei. But there could be change before and after that.”
Credit for the UK decision on Huawei was claimed by Trump. In a press conference, Trump said that no White House “has been tougher on China” than his administration. “I did this myself, for the most part,” he said as he spoke of having worked to pressure countries to not use Huawei.
“If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it,” he added.
“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. It’s a big security risk,” he said. “I talked many countries out of using it. If they want to do business with us, they can’t use it. Just today, I believe the UK announced that they’re not going to be using it. And that was up in the air for a long time, but they’ve decided.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
