Huawei to fight ‘security risk’ tag

CHINESE tech giant Huawei is launching a US court challenge to a law that labels the company a security risk and would limit its access to the American market for telecom equipment.

Huawei Technologies’ announcement yesterday came as the biggest global maker of network equipment for phone and internet companies fights US efforts to persuade allies to exclude the company from next-generation telecom systems.

Huawei said it filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Plano, Texas, to throw out a portion of this year’s US military appropriations act that bars the government and its contractors from using Huawei equipment.

Huawei, China’s first global tech brand, is at the centre of US-Chinese tensions over technology competition and cyberspying.

The company has spent years trying to put to rest accusations it facilitates Chinese spying or is controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

“We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort,” the company’s chairman, Guo Ping, said.

“This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers.”

Huawei has about 40 per cent of the global market for network gear but its US sales evaporated after a congressional panel in 2012 cited the company and a Chinese competitor, ZTE Corp, as security risks and told phone carriers to avoid dealing with them.

Huawei complains US authorities have released no evidence.

Washington’s campaign to persuade allies to shun Huawei threatens to block access to major markets as phone carriers prepare to invest billions in 5G equipment.

THIS BAN NOT ONLY IS UNLAWFUL, BUT ALSO RESTRICTS HUAWEI FROM ENGAGING IN FAIR COMPETITION HUAWEI CHAIRMAN GUO PING

Huawei says the new law would shrink its potential US market further by prohibiting the government from buying the Chinese vendor’s technology and from buying goods or services from or giving grants or loans to companies or other third parties that do.

The company is challenging the US law as an unconstitutional “bill of attainder,” or a measure that targets a specific individual for penalties without a trial. The company says that infringes its due process rights.

The ban is “based on numerous false, unproven and untested propositions,” said Song Liuping, the company’s chief legal officer.