Huawei Update: Trump Administration Officials Visit UK To Warn Of Chinese Telecom Giant's 5G Goals

A group of U.S. government officials will arrive Monday in the U.K. to persuade the British government against allowing Huawei onto its 5G networks, Reuters reported Sunday. Deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger is expected to be one of the U.S. officials taking part in the trip.

Security Minister Brandon Lewis told the BBC Sunday that a decision would be made “relatively soon.”

The U.S. has worried about Huawei’s involvement in global 5G networks, believing it constitutes a security risk that could allow the Chinese government to spy on U.S. assets and obtain highly classified U.S intelligence.

Other European nations have struggled to find a stance on the Huawei issue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Germany would be open to allowing Huawei to operate on its 5G networks, but she is receiving anti-Huawei pressure from other German lawmakers to enact a ban. Poland, on the other hand, has passed protocols intended to keep Chinese companies off 5G in the country.

Hungary has said that Huawei would play a strong role in its 5G rollout. Hungary and China have strong political and economic relations.

Huawei and the U.S. government have had a tense relationship. President Trump in May banned U.S. companies from doing business with the Chinese telecommunications giant as part of a blacklist. Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in December 2018 and will likely be extradited to the U.S. on financial fraud charges.