Huawei spokesman says report "lacking in substance"
House committee notes China "to be a major perpetrator of cyber espionage"
Chinese firms deny ties to Chinese government
Chinese tech giant Huawei on Monday called a congressional report warning of security risks from its telecom equipment "an exercise in China-bashing" as U.S. lawmakers held firm to their allegations.
A U.S. spokesman for Huawei said the report by the House Intelligence Committee that warned of national security risks from equipment from Huawei and fellow Chinese firm ZTE was "utterly lacking in substance."
"Huawei unequivocally denies the allegations in the report," the spokesman, William Plummer, told reporters on a conference call.
Plummer said Huawei requested the congressional investigation a year ago in an effort to clear the air and help provide a better understanding of how the telecom equipment industry shares a "global supply chain" that may lead to security vulnerabilities.
"The report utterly ignores these facts and dismisses 10 months of open information sharing," he said.
'Misguided Protectionism'
"This report is little more than an exercise in China-bashing and misguided protectionism."
Plummer said that if the committee's recommendations to block access to contracts and acquisitions for Huawei and ZTE are carried out, "it would set a monstrous market-distorting precedent which could be used against American companies doing business overseas."
And because rival vendors based in the U.S. and Europe use much of the same components, he said the idea of blocking a single company to improve cybersecurity is "at best naive."
The comments came as the Beijing government reacted to the report by urging Washington to "set aside prejudices" and "do things that will benefit China-U.S. economic cooperation instead of the contrary."
