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The New York Times article Trump State Visit to U.K. Faces Turbulence Amid Brexit Chaos says:

British and American officials said the White House had been deferential to 10 Downing Street in planning the trip, letting the British government set the program and avoiding demands, such as a presidential address to Parliament, which the hosts would have found difficult to grant.

“The ‘special relationship’ is in worse shape than either side will admit,” said Thomas Wright, an expert on Europe at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a think tank. “The combination of Brexit, Farage and Huawei makes it particularly fraught,” he added, referring also to the Trump administration’s targeting of the Chinese telecommunications company. “This could be the tipping point where the problems become more public.” (emphasis added)

Question: What are the problems affecting the "special relationship" specifically related to the "...Trump administration’s targeting of (Huawei)..." that could contribute to a tipping point, and therefore become more public?

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According to CNBC, the Donald Trump administration has asked the United Kingdom to block Huawei from building any part of its 5G network.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to tell the British government that Washington may limit intelligence sharing with the U.K. if it continues to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei to build part of its 5G mobile network, the Financial Times reported.

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  • I see, how does that rise to the level of a problem for the "special relationship" or a problem in general? Wherein lies the problem exactly? Thanks!
    – uhoh
    Commented Jun 3, 2019 at 2:43
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    @uhoh If you read the quoted part, this has progressed to the point of threats (if you use Huawei, we'll stop sharing intelligence). Also, I would presume that if the US stops sharing with the UK, the UK will stop sharing with the US.
    – Brythan
    Commented Jun 3, 2019 at 2:49
  • @Brythan which becomes humourous considering the UK plays host to several sites that various US intelligence agencies are heavily invested in... Denying access to those sites would be an interest repercussion imho.
    – user16741
    Commented Jun 3, 2019 at 3:15
  • @Brythan Yes indeed. I see what happened now; when my eyes encountered a "Trump said" they subconsciously jumped to the next paragraph to protect my delicate equilibrium. I see the problem now. Thanks!
    – uhoh
    Commented Jun 3, 2019 at 7:01
  • @Brythan Note that the UK intelligence community played an important role in the attempts to entrap the Trump campaign (Steele, Halper). Cutting them off doesn't need to be bad.
    – Sjoerd
    Commented Jun 3, 2019 at 9:05

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