Huawei to build £1bn manufacturing facility in the UK

US government urges rethink

Huawei has been given planning permission to build a manufacturing and R&D centre in Cambridge.

The Chinese vendor said it will spend £1bn on phase one of the project, which will see 50,000 sq ft of facilities built across nine acres of land, creating 400 jobs.

Victor Zhang, vice president of Huawei, said: "The UK is home to a vibrant and open market, as well as some of the best talent the world has to offer.

"Through close collaboration with research institutes, universities, and local industry, we want to advance optical communications technology for the industry as a whole, while doing our part to support the UK's broader Industrial Strategy.

"Ultimately, we want to help enshrine the UK's leading position in optoelectronics and promote UK tech on a global scale."

Huawei acquired the land for the site in 2018 and was granted approval by the local council yesterday.

It added the facility will "focus on researching, developing, and manufacturing optoelectronics products".

The announcement comes as the government edges towards a decision on whether the vendor's technology can be used in the UK's 5G network.

The government had initially said Huawei could be used in "non-core" elements of the infrastructure, but is now re-evaluating its decision.

Yesterday the US warned against allowing Huawei to press ahead with the new facility, the Financial Times said.

"We believe countries need to be able to trust that partners will not threaten national security, privacy, intellectual property, or human rights," the US state department said in a statement.

"Trust cannot exist where a company such as Huawei is subject to an authoritarian government, like the PRC [People's Republic of China], that lacks an independent judiciary or rule of law that would effectively prohibit the misuse of data."