all fair points, many of which I agree with. But the fact is we DID go with Huawei.
then for some reason (Trump) we didn't. There were security teams checking over Huawei's kit and found nothing (unless someone has proof in which case I'd like to read about it - genuinely). I'd also agree that you can look at it from a country point of view and say someone like Sweden is a more trustworthy partner. But again, we DID go with Huawei. And that kit still exists in many cases.
It just seems to me like a knee-jerk reaction based on what one person said, without any proof. If we didn't trust Huawei, why did we pick them for 5G rollout and continue to use them for many years? I think (personal opinion) that the UK gov was desperate to kiss US behind and asked "how high" when told to jump by them.
And my own preference for Huawei kit doesn't have any bearing on my thoughts for using them in Telcos etc. LOTS of Chinese kit is used in many places. I'm quite sure you'd find Chinese kit in say the NHS for example. If we don't trust China because we think their corporate structures are entwined with the CCP, then why Huawei, why not all of it?
But I don't want to step on any toes here, I honestly respect people's opinions and I'm not trying to even defend Huawei here. I just found it odd that there's no proof of any wrongdoing, we chose their kit , and then because bestest ally said they're bad, we now think they're evil.
Not long ago we were welcoming Russian oligarchs, selling them football clubs, newspapers, houses in London, etc. Now we don't, at least not as much. Russia's behaviour changed, they killed a few people in the UK, invaded Ukraine, funneled money to certain parties, and we slowly reacted to that.
China has changed a lot too. This is not the China from the 90's and Xi Jinping isn't like previous leaders, especially in this new stint. Look at their claims in the south China sea, what's already happening with some countries, and then look at their military build-up... independently of what Trump (someone I dislike a lot) says, it does look like there will be trouble in the Pacific. And like any powerful country, they'll use their influence, spy, bribe, use sanctions, wage war, etc. We should prepare for that.
And so we react to this change. Not easy when there's so much money flowing around and we always move slowly, but we have to look at Huawei, Three, the power grid, how much of our debt they own, if we should buy their security cameras and DJI drones, and so on.
The reason I don't need to see a backdoor on Huawei equipment is simple. We know what the Americans are up to, according to leaks we are a bit naughty as well, and it's only natural that the Chinese do the same. All you need is a handful of updates with well-crafted bugs that can only be triggered under very specific conditions and with that chain of small, innocent bugs, you have full access to a firewall or something like that. Essentially, you don't want to use equipment that can be exploited by a potential enemy.
I like to be realistic when it comes to this stuff. The UK is part of the west, part of NATO, we work with mainland Europe and the US. We're not going to join some security pact that Russia or China have. In a new cold war, this will be our block. If sh*t hits the fan, these are going to be our partners. And that's why it's acceptable to us and others in this block to use potentially insecure technology from "friendly" countries like Finland and Sweden, but not from China. Others in other parts of the world will avoid our tech for the same and other reasons.
Anyway, it's just my opinion, probably a bit flawed.
Now, I think it's fair to ask why Huawei, but not OPPO or Xiaomi. Was the network stuff the main problem? And why did everyone go crazy over 5G? Us being behind China on 5G reminded me of
Dr. Strangelove's "mine shaft gap"

. I guess politicians and journalists were worried about us not having self-driving cars, remote surgeries over 5G, and whatever 5G was going to unlock back then

. A lot of people still don't understand what 5G is because of how it was presented a few years ago.