John Suffolk told a committee hearing that Huawei has sought guidance from its attorneys to see if a Chinese law on domestic companies’ cooperation with the government on security matters could force it to conduct foreign intelligence work.

The legislation has been cited by US President Donald Trump’s administration in its attempts to force governments across the world to drop Huawei from their 5G network development plans.

Suffolk’s appearance before the UK parliament’s science and technology committee came as Britain prepares to publish delayed policy guidelines for the next-generation technology’s rollout.