Huawei Forced to Abandon £1 Billion Cambridge Research Project

On March 5th, it was reported that Huawei had been forced to withdraw from Western markets after the US raised security concerns about its ties to the Chinese Communist Party and implemented a series of sanctions against the company. A review by the UK’s National Security Council concluded that the security of using Huawei technology can no longer be guaranteed. Therefore, ministers believe that the company’s equipment poses a high risk and have ordered telecom providers to remove Huawei from the UK’s 5G network by 2027.

As the Chinese telecom giant faces difficulties and its business plummets in the UK, Huawei has quietly shelved its plans to establish a £1 billion research park in Cambridge. The company had planned to build state-of-the-art facilities at the research park for developing broadband technology, microchips, and artificial intelligence software.

Despite promising to complete the first phase of construction by 2021, the site remains untouched so far. The project has been under review since the outbreak of COVID-19, and it has now been put on hold due to the UK government’s ban on Huawei equipment in most mobile and broadband networks. It shows that the UK, the US, and other countries must decouple from Communist China’s technology.