SYDNEY: Chinese telecoms giant Huawei on Wednesday accused the US of
"protectionism" after Congress labelled it a spy threat, and offered
to lay bare its source code and equipment in Australia to allay fears.
The firm's Australia chief John
Lord urged against the cybersecurity debate becoming "distorted the way it
has in the US", vowing that the company would "never" allow
state or individual abuse of its equipment for illegal ends.
Huawei, which was founded by
former People's Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei, was barred from
tendering for Australia's national broadband network this year on security
grounds.
Those fears were echoed by the US
House Intelligence Committee this month, when it warned equipment supplied by
Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom equipment maker, could be used for
spying and called for their exclusion from government contracts and acquisitions.
Lord said the Congressional
committee's report should be "called for what it really is: protectionism
not security", dismissing it as part of an "ongoing trade conflict
between the US and China".
"The fiery rhetoric of the
US Committee's report may make good headline-fodder in an election year, but it
should really be seen as a missed opportunity," he told Australia's
National Press Club.
Lord said Huawei's future
depended on its "complete transparency" on security and other issues,
and dismissed questions about its links to the Chinese state, denying that
client information had or ever would be shared.
"Huawei would never allow
any third-party country or individual to interfere with our equipment for an
illegal purpose," he said.
"Cybersecurity
infringements, violations are illegal and we would never allow anyone to do
that and we haven't ... We would never allow our equipment to be misused and I
make that point quite strongly."
Lord said Huawei had been
surprised and disappointed to be barred from Australia's broadband project and
had not "to this day" been offered an explanation.
He called for the establishment
of an independent cybersecurity testing centre where "all equipment
implemented into major or critical Australian networks can be subjected to the
same thorough security assessment".
"Huawei is willing to offer
complete and unrestricted access to our software source code and equipment in
such an environment," said Lord.
A similar centre had been set up
in Britain, where Huawei was helping telecoms group BT build a national
broadband network with the blessing of state security agencies, he added.
Lord said simply blacklisting a
country or company no longer made sense, with major telecoms companies sourcing
their components from the same factories across the globe.
Some 70 per cent of Huawei's own
materials came from outside China, he added.
- AFP/ck
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