Tensions between Washington and Beijing over Huawei continued to escalate on Wednesday after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa restrictions on employees of Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which he accused of facilitating human right violations.
Pompeo made the remarks after China warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that the decision to ban Huawei from the United Kingdom's 5G network would cost the UK Chinese investment.
"The way you are treating Huawei is being followed very closely by other Chinese businesses, and it will be very difficult for other businesses to have the confidence to have more investment," Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming told the Centre for European Reform
In Beijing, the foreign ministry cast the UK as "a relatively small place" that was becoming subservient of the Trump administration.
"Does the UK want to maintain its independent status or be reduced to being a vassal of the United States, be the US's catspaw?" Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "The safety of Chinese investment in the UK is being greatly threatened."
Hours after Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be purged from the nascent 5G network by the end of 2027, Trump claimed credit for the decision and said if countries wanted to do business with the US they should block Huawei.
When asked by reporters about the UK's decision to remove Huawei gear from its network, Pompeo said: "We were happy about it. Faster is always better to get this equipment out of their system it's a security risk."
Repeating the long-held claim by the Trump administration that Huawei is a threat to national security and enables spying by the Chinese government - an allegation Huawei has repeatedly denied - Pompeo said any information transmitted across a network with Huawei gear "will almost certainly end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party".
In a separate statement referring to alleged abuses against China's minority Muslim population, Pompeo charged that Huawei was "an arm of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China".
"Certain Huawei employees provide material support to the CCP regime that commits human rights abuses," the statement said.
Huawei says Washington wants to frustrate its growth because no US company offers the same technology at a competitive price.
Asked about Pompeo's remarks, a Huawei spokeswoman said: "We are looking into this and will share the statement once we have one."
SOURCE: Reuters news agency
