During the interview with Catherine Philp from The Times on July 16, Ambassador Liu took questions regarding UK’s decision to ban Huawei from its 5G network. He pointed out that choosing Huawei is choosing opportunities and growth, while rejecting Huawei is rejecting opportunities, rejecting growth and rejecting the future.

Ambassador Liu said, Huawei used to be the shining example of China-UK win-win cooperation. “I still remember that when Americans tried very hard to suppress Huawei, the British leaders told me, we are open,” he recalled, “I spoke highly of British leaders that the only Chinese company who name they can pronounce one hundred percent correctly is Huawei. Even in their public speeches, they said, we welcome Huawei. That shows the different foreign policy the UK adopted. And that shows the UK was open and free, a flag bearer. That’s one of the reasons why there are so many Chinese companies coming here.”

5G is not only about improving the quality, clarity and speed of the cell phone, it is really about everything in the future, including automation and economy, etc. “Take the coronavirus for example, 5G plays a big part in fighting Covid-19 in China and Wuhan, by way of remote medication. Also, 5G covered all the hospitals. And it provides better protection for medical and health care workers.” “So 5G represents the future for not only the industry but also our daily life,” said the Ambassador.

The UK government has made an ambitious plan to have a full 5G coverage of the UK by 2025. It started developing 5G earlier, but is relatively slow in terms of installation. But British people are very intelligent and are also very far-sighted. They know how to take advantage of the opportunities.

“Huawei is a big opportunity for the UK. Huawei is the leader in 5G, covering 40% of China’s total market and 40% market share around the world. Huawei wants to help and contribute to UK’s 5G coverage,” said the Ambassador. Huawei is a fine example for China-UK win-win cooperation. It has created about 26,000 jobs and set up 6 research centres, hiring about 300 to 400 researchers. It has just bought a piece of land in Cambridge and is going to build the optoelectronics R&D centre in the UK.

Now, the UK made the decision based on unwarranted accusation of security risk. There’s even political manipulation. “When you listen to American leaders, they tried to take credit for exerting pressure on the UK,” he said.

British people wouldn’t like to pay higher price for less-quality products. Business leaders have been expressing their concerns about the spike in price and the delay of 5G. “At the end of the day, the government will pay the bill, but where will it get the money? From the tax payers. It’s the consumers, the ordinary people, who will have to pay the bill,” exclaimed the Ambassador.

The British government’s decision has also broken the industrial supply chain. The UK does not have much manufacturing capacity but has talented people, technology and brain. That’s UK’s advantage. And Huawei has the manufacturing power and also research people. “China and the UK can work together on the high end of 5G technology, and the two countries can then match their strengths, grow together and be the leaders in the world. But now things have changed.”

“Huawei has planned to invest another three billion GBP in research in the next three years. However, by 2027, according to some people, there will be no Huawei in the UK. What’s the point for Huawei to continue to invest here? So the UK will miss many opportunities because of this decision.”

“Choosing Huawei is choosing opportunities and growth, and rejecting Huawei is rejecting opportunities and growth. I now would say, rejecting Huawei is rejecting the future. 5G really represents the future and the UK has missed the opportunity to be a leading country in this area,” said Ambassador Liu.