Security officials from the U.S. met with U.K. ministers on Monday and in no uncertain terms told them that Chinese tech behemoth Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is not the right company to use to build its 5G infrastructure.

The delegation that arrived in London had been put together by President Donald Trump and was led by his deputy national security adviser, Matt Pottinger. Those officials warned that going ahead with such a move would post security risks and was “nothing short of madness.”

Last year, reports stated that major British telecommunications companies were ready to get on board with the Chinese firm in spite of scathing reports that outlined various risks of the plan. In December, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he didn’t want to close its doors to overseas investment but admitted that there were security concerns.

The U.S. has been intensely lobbying against the move, and it seems the delegation that arrived in the U.K. this week was something of a last big push to steer Britain away from Huawei’s aspirations to build the 5G network.

It’s still unclear what the U.K will do, but it has been reported that some “noncore” parts of the network will be built by Huawei. That’s not good enough, according to the U.S. delegation, who brought to London a dossier of information outlining the security threat such a network would create.

According to the Financial Times, U.S. officials told British ministers that having Huawei at the helm would “be like putting Russia in charge of anti-doping of world athletes.” Another member warned that such a deal would pose transatlantic intelligence risks and negatively affect U.S.-U.K. relations.

For its part, Huawei has said it had worked with the U.K. for many years and the evidence of a security risk is unfounded. The company cited the head of Britain’s MI5, Andrew Parker, who recently said he believed using Huawei would not be detrimental to transatlantic intelligence. Trump has said if the deal goes through, there certainly will be a change in intelligence collaboration.

Photo: Robert Pittman/Flickr