U.K. Seeks 5G Alliance to Reduce Dependence on China, Times Says

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. has proposed forming an alliance of 10 democratic countries in order to reduce their reliance on China for crucial 5G wireless technology, the Times of London reported.

Britain has approached Washington about creating a club of nations that would include the Group of Seven nations plus Australia, South Korea and India, the newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.

The move was prompted by concerns over the dominance of China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and is designed to funnel public investments in advanced wireless research toward companies that are based within those 10 countries, the paper said.

The U.K. government had approved Huawei’s participation in its 5G network, but later capped the company’s network share at 35% following anger from the Trump administration, which has battled Beijing over the Chinese tech company’s increasing dominance in the global wireless industry.

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