Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Huawei, has denied his company was assisting the Chinese government in spying on their United States counterparts.
Zhengfei, who has not spoken to the media for 25 years, told Reuters his company was not a major player in the US market having not sold a single piece of equipment to a US carrier or to any US government agency.
“Huawei equipment is almost non-existent in networks currently running in the US. We have never sold any key equipment to major US carriers, nor have we sold any equipment to any US government agency,” Ren said.
He denied reports his company was in anyway connected to the cybersecurity issues the US had encountered and the increased attacks on various US firms which have been linked to China.
Huawei which was accused with ZTE of giving information regarding the US government to the Chinese has said it has always acted in a transparent way despite critics pointing to the absence of Zhengfei was a signal he was shielding the company’s obscure activities.
In March, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Tom Donilon called on the Chinese government to stop tolerating cyber attacks against American businesses and said it was a threat to international trade.
“Increasingly, US businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale.
“The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country,”reported the NewsFactor network.
China however said it was ready to discuss with the US cybercrime issues as it insists it is also a victim of cybercrime and believes the accusations are baseless.
In the interview with Reuters, Zhengfei revealed the company had been selected to build a 4G network for New Zealand which it believes is a key market.
“Huawei has been selected to help build a 4G/LTE and the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network in New Zealand. We will continue to deploy world-class, advanced communications technologies here, delivering the safest, most advanced networks for the nation,” Zhengfei said.
This is the second time that the company has invited the media after the chief financial officer Cathy Meng, Zhengfei’s daughter, hosted a news conference earlier this year to release the company’s 2012 results.
