BT has inked a deal with Chinese telecom company Huawei, which will mean the outfit will develop gear which will be used as part of Britain's BT Internet's 2.5 billion plans for super fast broadband. However Huawei's links to the Chinese military, has raised fears among security experts who warn that Britain could be vulnerable to cyber attacks and spying.
Huawei's head Ren Zhengfei is a high-ranking Communist party member with connections in the Chinese government. Before he took the job he was a director of the telecoms research arm of China's three-million-strong People's Liberation Army. During the Cultural Revolution he was an army officer.
Bts new technology will connect two-thirds of British homes and offices by 2015, and is being tested in Chinese labs. Dr Kim Howells, the former chair of the UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, describes the situation as 'very worrying'. Howells said that no matter how a Chinese company presents itself it is never really separate from the state or free from Chinese government diktats.
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