UK: Strict Procurement Laws Proposed to Protect Security

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Facts

  • Britain will propose new procurement laws on Wednesday, which are intended to protect sensitive industries from cyberattacks. The policies plan to create a new unit to scrutinize suppliers and give the government new powers to ban suppliers from certain contracts.1
  • The government will put forward changes to legislation next week — assessing the tie between the private sector and other nations regarding both infrastructure and supply chains.1
  • The new legislation is designed to bar foreign companies subject to China's National Security Law from winning public contracts in the UK. The new procurement unit will also work to remove all Chinese-made cameras from sensitive central government locations after several members of parliament warned that PRC authorities could access British closed-circuit televisions.2
  • The National Security Unit for Procurement will respond swiftly to emerging threats and stop companies looking to win public contracts in order to gain access to sensitive information that threatens national security. The specialist team will be based in the Cabinet Office and work closely with British intelligence agencies.3
  • In 2020 the UK stated it would ban Huawei from its 5G network. London has also used new laws to order PRC-owned technology company Nexperia to sell a microchip factory based in the UK following a national security assessment.1
  • Before the new procurement legislation becomes law, the amendments must pass through both houses of parliament — the debate on the bill is scheduled for next week.1

Sources: 1Reuters, 2Independent, and 3GOV.UK.

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Politico. The government is introducing this bill to protect Britain from China's techno-authoritarianism. The Chinese Communist Party aims to engineer Western dependence on PRC technologies and then use its security laws to force Chinese companies to turn over sensitive technologies and other intellectual property to Beijing. This bill is important to defend the British people.
  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by BBC News. The UK and others are acting out of fear. The US and its allies are overstretching national security concerns to suppress competition from PRC corporations. Banning Chinese tech firms from Western 5G markets is political theater. Just because Western companies have put in so-called "backdoor" access when they build telephone networks around the world doesn't necessarily mean China is doing it. In fact, there is no hard evidence that China is actually using its tech firms for espionage.