Prince Charles' Youth Charity Will No Longer Accept Donations From Huawei

The Prince's Trust, the youth charity founded by heir to the British throne Prince Charles, has announced it will no longer accept donations from Huawei Technologies "in light of public concerns".

"At present, we are not accepting new donations from Huawei in light of public concerns. Future donations will continue to be reviewed by our Ethical Fundraising Committee," the organization said in a statement.

Huawei is currently a major supplier of broadband tech and mobile networks in Britain, but doubts have been raised about its durability in the UK market given officials' frequent warnings of the security risk the brand's products potentially pose.

READ MORE: 'Lots of Markets Will Be Limiting Investment Opportunities to Huawei' – Scholar

For instance, in December Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson expressed concerns over the involvement of Huawei in the United Kingdom's 5G network. MI6 chief Alex Younger also argued Whitehall should decide how comfortable the dependence on Chinese technology in developing the 5G network is for the United Kingdom.

On 24 December, it was announced a US$2.91 billion (£2.3 billion) project to equip British police and ambulance workers with state of the art communications equipment would be stripped of network technology manufactured by Huawei, due to spying fears. The decision was made by the project's supplier EE, due to a policy at parent firm BT to remove Huawei 4G core components from systems — the telecoms giant will foot the bill, in a process that could take up to four years.

In an ironic twist, much of the telecom equipment made by Huawei's non-US competitors — such as Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks —which could replace the firm's tech on the project is manufactured in China, if not by Huawei itself.

O 18 January, the UK's renowned Oxford University said it had stopped accepting funding from Huawei "in light of public concerns".