A quick google search suggests Chinese investment in the UK is rife, the portfolio includes British Steel, the National Grid, Thames Water and 10 per cent of Heathrow airport. In addition, the Chinese are involved in the UK nuclear industry with plans afoot for the building of a Chinese-designed power station in Essex – by the state-owned China Nuclear Power Group (CGN).

Which brings us to Huawei, until the UK government’s recent announcement the organisation was deeply integrated into the UK’s 5G infrastructure. To give a sense of scale, figures suggest that in 2013 alone Huawei installed 15,000 ‘cabinets’ (the large box-like structures at the end of streets) to facilitate fibre optic broadband access in the UK.

One source with an intimate knowledge of telecommunications industry infrastructure said: “These cabinets are Huawei products, if the argument is that Huawei could monitor activity using its 5G equipment – how is this any different?