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There is 'an Element of Scaremongering' Over Chinese Tech Firms in UK - Academic

© REUTERS / CARL RECINEA telecommunications mast damaged by fire is seen in Sparkhill, masts have in recent days been vandalised amid conspiracy theories linking the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and 5G masts, Birmingham, Britain, April 6, 2020
A telecommunications mast damaged by fire is seen in Sparkhill, masts have in recent days been vandalised amid conspiracy theories linking the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and 5G masts, Birmingham, Britain, April 6, 2020 - Sputnik International
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A UK-based technology company has been summoned to the House of Commons to answer questions over the transfer of security software to Chinese-owned businesses. But is the British government right to believe that Chinese companies, such as Huawei, could pose a threat to national security?

How will the West’s relationship with Beijing progress, both politically and economically, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic? Tom Harper, assistant professor at Neijiang Normal University in China, gave his views on the matter.

Sputnik: Is Westminster right to believe that Chinese technology companies pose a national security risk for the UK?

Tom Harper: This debate is going on amidst two trends, the first of which is attempts by Chinese technology firms to become less reliant on American components, most notably with Huawei’s latest phone model having no American components.

It’s also part of a wider American campaign against technology firms, most notably with their attempts to get their allies to ban Huawei’s participation in rolling out 5G, which has been struck a blow following British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to allow a limited rollout of it in the UK.

The current fears over the Chinese firms, and in particular Huawei, are very much influenced by this campaign, particularly the idea that they are an arm of the Chinese state; so in many ways, this is a continuation of this.

What is likely is that the opponents of this move have seen the conspiracies over 5G and coronavirus, and seen an opportunity to try and reverse this decision, so it’s really sort of a conclusion of that. Whilst it is still uncertain whether they will reverse this or not, there are still many problems with the campaign against Huawei - most notably in the fact that American officials have not really provided much in the way of convincing evidence over links to the Chinese state; so there is a degree of scaremongering in there, absolutely.

Sputnik: Could the UK pull out of its 5G deal with Huawei?

Tom Harper: There is definitely going to be a lot more pressure on Boris Johnson to do so, because there are a lot of Conservative backbenchers, like Iain Duncan-Smith, who are against this; I think that there will be a lot more pressure.

At the moment, Boris Johnson has probably got a strong enough majority to resist this so far, but I think that the pressure will be growing, and he’s going to be getting a lot of pressure from the other side of the Atlantic. But then, there is also going to be a lot of pressure from the other side of the world.

China will still very much be a part of the UK’s economic future, as it is one of the biggest areas in the world for economic growth, so there is going to be a lot of pressure to keep that going; Boris Johnson is in danger of being crushed between two contradicting sides, in that regard.

Sputnik: How do you see the West’s relationship with China progressing on both a political and economic level in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic?

A logo is pictured on a Huawei NetEngine 8000 Intelligent Metro Router during a 5G event in London, on February 20, 2020 - Sputnik International
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Tom Harper: There have been projections by economists from Goldman-Sachs and JP Morgan, which project that the GDP of the United States will drop by up to five percent over the next couple of quarters, which means that it’s possible that China’s could become the largest sooner than expected - which, in turn, could lead to a growth in Chinese hard power. But it will also weaken Chinese soft power, and there may be a temptation within Chinese political circles to abandon soft power and to just focus on hard power, which is very dangerous.

This pivot has been alluded to by the head of MI6, who claimed that power and money have committed eastwards, and it’s also been claimed by hawkish observers in the US, that the coronavirus has shattered the myth of American global supremacy, which I think is over the poor US response to the coronavirus. EU foreign policy advisers have claimed that COVID-19 could be the US’ "Suez moment", as in the degradation of US power, in the same way that Suez demonstrated the degradation of British power back in 1956.

We can see this as a continuation of the trend of 2008, but on a greater scale; there have been a lot of worry and comparisons with the 1930s. There will be a political reckoning and there will be a sort of greater blame game over the virus - which we’ve seen already with the attempts to call COVID-19 the "Wuhan Virus" or the "Chinese Virus", which will degrade ties between China and the west further, so there will be greater tensions, so in many ways we live in interesting times, but also very dangerous times indeed.

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