Huawei criticises US spying claims claiming it 'belittles national security'

Huawei criticised US claims that its 5G network could be used to spy on western governments and said the US administration was being “ignorant of technology” and “belittling” national security concerns with repeated unsubstantiated claims.

John Suffolk, Huawei’s chief security officer and the UK government’s former chief IT adviser, said the US had no proof to back up the claims.

Suffolk told reporters in Shenzhen that America’s allegations were motivated by politics and “certainly not security” concerns.

“[America] can’t keep saying [Huawei] has got some dodgy technology. [Edward] Snowden revealed all kind of things going on with American technology,” he said. “No one has revealed anything that we do [is bad].

“They [the US] are belittling national security – national security is important and they shouldn’t belittle it. They should face up to the reality that technology is complicated and should work together to solve the problems that we can.”

Suffolk continued, saying that there isn’t much Huawei can do but offer its services to the US.

Peter Zhou, the Huawei executive in charge of rolling out 5G said US officials were “ignorant of technology” and said he often had to “explain it to them like I do to my kids”.

Suffolk and Zhou were speaking at an industry conference near Huawei’s headquarters. At the conference, Suffolk asked the UK government to help develop a new cyber security standard to be applied to all telecoms suppliers in Europe.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, recently warned allies that the US would stop sharing information with them if they used the Chinese tech company’s technology.

Suffolk called for the UK government to help develop a new cyber security standard to be applied to all telecoms suppliers across Europe.