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Comment by jpkeisala | Hacker News Reader

Interesting decision. I interpretate this either UK does not believe US that China is spying or little spying doesn't really matter since the price is better and we can control it.

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The argument, I believe, is that all equipment should be treated as suspect and carefully monitored. So you don't trust Huawei but you don't trust equipment from other suppliers either. Both will need constant validation.

Personally, I don't trust Huawei but that's mostly down to stories I've heard about industrial espionage against alternative suppliers.

For instance I never liked the way that BT replaced Marconi equipment with Huawei stuff in their 21CN network way back when. I think the government of the day was foolish to allow that to happen.

The bosses at BT at the time are long since retired on fat pensions and Marconi is now gone for good.

I think it's a compromise to try and avoid annoying both the US and China at the same time - not sure if it has worked though.

The UK is also at the beginning of post-Brexit trade negotiations with the US trade agreement being a central one. This is going to be part of those negotiations going forward and is all part of the governments strategy.

You think the UK will offer to drop Huawei as part of a US trade deal? Wouldn't that mean a remarkable loss of face for the current UK government?

Depends what they get in return.

The current UK government is going to get bent over and given a reminder of BoJo's days at Eton before they get any trade deal from the US, and that is before you start to ask questions about internal US politics and the chance of passing any sort of trade deal during the coming election season. Humiliation is a baked-in assumption regarding any future deal and having some chips that you can afford to sacrifice during the deal-making is something worth keeping around if you can.

Not if it's a good enough trade deal.

The US will be looking for the UK to pay US-style inflated prices for pharmaceuticals, change food safety standards to accept subsidised US farm produce, and install an ISDS court to protect corporations' anticipated future profits.

Compared to these, banning Huawei - which isn't even a British company - would be a trivial concession.

Or, government evaluation of security is half-politics, half-theater, and they just don't give a damn.

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