Chinese tech giant Huawei lashed out at the White House on Friday, accusing the US federal government of what it called “a loser’s attitude” and dismissing rebukes that its cutting-edge technology could be accessed and exploited by Chinese intelligence.
Guo Ping, the company’s chairman, said on Friday that the US was persisting in its efforts to shape a false image of his company because of US tech firms’ inability to compete with its products, a Reuters report reads.
“The US government has a loser’s attitude. It wants to smear Huawei because it cannot compete against Huawei”, Guo noted, as cited by the edition, further expressing a hope that the Trump team would “adjust attitude” in the foreseeable future.
In what appears to be the most recent twist in the US-China trade row, the Trump administration has banned government use of Huawei products, citing the security risk, and has urged US foreign allies to follow their example, as well as prevent the Chinese brand from building 5G networks on their territories.
The world's biggest telecoms equipment supplier has more than once denied Washington’s accusations of stealing commercial information and spying on behalf of the Chinese government, insisting that it sees no reason why it should be restricted from building 5G infrastructure in any country.
In a parallel move, the company, which is notably one of the top smartphone producers in the world, stated earlier that POTUS’ administration has been unwilling to meet with its executives to talk the security issue over.
“At this point, they’re not even willing to talk with us about the mechanisms recognized by the U.S. government to address cybersecurity risk”, chief security officer Andy Purdy told The Hill.
Huawei went still further in their response and filed a lawsuit against the ban on the use of their devices by officials.
The 5G issue was put on vote within the European Commission this week, with EU officials declining to embrace the US-led effort to dump gear made by the Chinese telecom giant. Instead, they released recommendations calling for deeper scrutiny of possible security flaws in 5G phones.
The Huawei controversy dates back to December 2018, when the company’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was detained in Vancouver, Canada at the behest of the US, reportedly on suspicions that she'd conspired to violate US sanctions against Iran. The arrest was denounced by both Huawei and Beijing, with Chinese authorities demanding that Canada immediately release her.
Meng was subsequently released on bail, but had to remain in Vancouver awaiting extradition to the US, which the latter demanded. In early March, the Canadian government made the decision to press ahead with the extradition process; meanwhile Meng's lawyers argued that Canadian officials had interrogated her illegally, giving no explanation, while she was going through the customs.
