MI6 chief Alex Younger sounds warning about China’s Huawei

MI6
Chief Alex Younger gave a speech at St Andrews
University.
Andrew Milligan/WPA
Pool/Getty Images

• The head of MI6 Alex Younger has warned that Chinese
  phone giant Huawei could pose a threat to British
  security. 
• Younger said the UK will have to make a decision after
  allies, including the US, Australia, and New Zealand, barred
  Huawei from launching its 5G network.
• Younger added that the arrival of 5G would make it
  harder for secret services to scrutinise Huawei’s
  equipment.

The head of MI6 Alex Younger warned of a growing security threat
from Chinese phone company Huawei at a speech on Monday.

In a rare speech at St Andrews University in Scotland, Younger
said the UK will have to make “some decisions” about Huawei after
allies, such as the US,
Australia, and
New Zealand, banned it from launching 5G 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,” he said.

The US has led the charge against Huawei, whose founder was
an officer in the People’s Liberation Army, and the company is
effectively locked out of the American market. However, that
hasn’t prevented Huawei from becoming
the second most popular phone manufacturer in the world,
behind Samsung.

Read more:

The US is asking the world to say no to Chinese tech-giant
Huawei

Younger said the arrival of 5G would make it more difficult to
monitor Huawei’s technology, some of which the UK already has
installed in its telecoms network, and which is tested by British
secret services at GCHQ.

He added that the Chinese government’s approach to data
protections means “they are able to use and manipulate data sets
on a scale that we can only dream of.”

You can watch Alex Younger’s speech here: