Huawei News: Boris Johnson Says Opponents Of China Telecom Giant Should Suggest Alternatives For 5G Rollout

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday that those opposing Huawei’s participation in the country’s 5G network should suggest alternatives.

“The British public deserve to have access to the best possible technology. We want to put in gigabit broadband for everybody,” Johnson told the BBC. "Now if people oppose one brand or another then they have to tell us what’s the alternative.”

“On the other hand, let’s be clear, I don’t want, as the UK prime minister, to put in any infrastructure that is going to prejudice our national security or our ability to cooperate with Five Eyes intelligence partners,” he continued, referring to the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Johnson’s comments come after a group of U.S. officials visited the U.K. Monday to warn the country against allowing Huawei onto its 5G network. The officials allegedly provided new technical evidence in a presentation that Huawei is a security risk for U.K. networks.

“We’d already anticipated the kind of threat that the US material demonstrates and factored that into our planning,” one British government source told the Guardian after the presentation.

The U.S. has claimed that Huawei’s inclusion in 5G networks would allow the Chinese government to spy on U.S. assets and obtain confidential information. The U.K. is still trying to determine whether the country will ban Huawei or allow the company to participate in its 5G rollout. Other European nations, such as Germany, are also trying to figure out their stance on the Huawei issue.

The Trump administration has clamped down on Huawei, enacting a blacklist in May, which bans U.S. firms from doing business with the company.

Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, is in Canada facing extradition to the U.S. on financial fraud charges.