UK's Johnson says on Huawei: we must protect from 'hostile state vendors'

LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain needed to protect its critical national infrastructure from "hostile state vendors" when weighing what role China's Huawei should play in the country's 5G network.

Officials at Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have been studying the impact of U.S. measures announced in May, which are intended to restrict Huawei's ability to source the advanced microchips needed to produce its 5G equipment and flagship smartphones.

"On Huawei, the position is very, very simple," Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. "I'm not going to get drawn into Sinophobia because I'm not a Sinophobe. On the other hand I do want to see our critical national infrastructure properly protected from hostile state vendors, so we need to strike that balance and that's what we'll do." (Reporting by Kate Holton and Paul Sandle; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)