China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to the UK’s ban on Huawei at a regular press conference yesterday. Hua Chunying said that the UK, in the absence of any concrete evidence, had repeatedly discriminated against and excluded Chinese enterprises in conjunction with the US on the pretext of unwarranted risks, flagrantly violating the principles of market economy and the rules of free trade, breaking the relevant commitments it made, damaging the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises, and impacting the mutual trust underlying China-UK cooperation, which China was strongly opposed.
“This is not a matter of one company, one industry, but a matter of the UK highly politicizing business and technology issues at all costs, a matter of an obvious threat being posed to the security of Chinese investment in the UK, and a matter of confidence that concerns whether the UK market will remain open, fair and non-discriminatory,” she said.
Hua Chunying stressed China’s grave concern over this matter, saying that China would seriously assess it and take whatever means necessary to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.