The head of the UK’s secret service, Alex Younger, signalled security concerns over the Chinese telecoms group Huawei in a rare speech that underlined the threat faced by Britain and its allies from Beijing’s growing dominance of emerging technologies.
Speaking to an audience of students at the University of St Andrews, where he studied three decades ago, Mr Younger said the UK had to make “some decisions” on Huawei after close intelligence partners such as the US, New Zealand and Australia banned them from future 5G mobile networks.
“We need to decide the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies and these platforms in an environment where some of our allies have taken a very definite position,” said Mr Younger.