An article says that Britain has “pulled out” of a 5G contract with Chinese company Huawei because test kits were found to be contaminated with coronavirus.
“Britain pulls out of 5G contract with Chinese firm Huawei after test kits were found contaminated with Corona virus,” reads the headline of an article on the India-based site Organiser.org., The article has been shared on Facebook. But its claims are unfounded., What is Britain’s relationship with Chinese firm Huawei, and what does it have to do with test kits for Covid-19?, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on 30 March 2020 that laboratories across the UK were expecting delays in Covid-19 testing efforts. The delays were a result of some testing kit components being contaminated with the coronavirus that causes the disease., The particular test kits had been ordered from Luxembourg-based company Eurofin. Eurofin had found that some “core” components of their testing kits were contaminated, and delivery of viable test kits would therefore be delayed., Except this relatively minor incident has been badly miscommunicated. Organiser.org has published another article, by Creative Destruction Media, to back up its claim that Eurofin’s contaminated parts were produced in China. This article only quotes Eurofin as saying parts came from “other countries”, and the source it cites does not actually include this claim., Eurofin has not blamed China for the issues, and the test kits were neither delivered nor used in the UK. Additionally, the test kits have nothing to do with telecoms firm Huawei, which has pledged to help fight Covid-19, but not by producing test kits., Britain has had a somewhat controversial relationship with Huawei. After the US accused the company of posing a security risk, Britain announced a controversial decision to continue trading with Huawei., The decision, announced in January 2020, allowed Huawei and other “high risk vendors” to provide infrastructure for Britain’s proposed 5G telecommunications network, although it capped their involvement at a 35% market share., The decision was challenged in March, when members of Britain’s Conservative party proposed an amendment that would exclude Huawei completely. The amendment lost a parliamentary vote, and will not be implemented., Since then, neither prime minister Boris Johnson nor any other member of the UK government has announced a repeal of the Bill that allows Huawei to provide 5G infrastructure. It certainly has not pulled out of the arrangement, as Organiser.org claims. – Keegan Leech, , "A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”. What should you do? First, dont delete!", Click on our guide for the steps you should follow., Publishers guide, Africa Check is a partner in Facebook’s third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media., The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it., You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how., Africa Check is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers fighting misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic., Learn more about the alliance here., , © Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines.\xa0You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page., We depend on voluntary donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project., Find out more, For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results., , Get a weekly dose of facts, straight to your inbox.
Huawei doesn’t produce Covid-19 test components, UK not pulling out of 5G contract | Africa Check