Trump plan for allies to crack down on Chinese company is backfiring: report

On Monday, Business Insider reported that Andrew Parker, the head of the British espionage agency MI5, is not concerned about U.S. threats to cut off intelligence sharing to Britain if they do not crack down on the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

Parker, who said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has few options because there aren't many telecommunications companies and Huawei controls 28 percent of the global market, has said that he has "no reason to think" American intelligence services will cut them off.

This comes as a blow to President Donald Trump, whose administration issued the threat as part of their lobbying effort to restrict Huawei's international influence. Huawei has been at the cutting edge of developing "5G" infrastructure, allowing many countries to build their new equipment with Chinese technology, but it has come under heavy suspicion from the United States, which accuses the firm of facilitating espionage by the Chinese government. Huawei denies these allegations. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned it will be "difficult" for the United States to share intelligence with countries that have Huawei-based telecommunications infrastructure.

Parker's attitude suggests that this lobbying effort is unsuccessful. The U.K. has been considering whether to place Huawei on a trade blacklist at the request of the administration, but missed their July 2019 deadline to do so citing lack of clarity from American officials.