28% 27% 23%
vice president for a digital single market.
The company says it is employee-owned and operates independently. It denies it designs equipment to allow eavesdropping or that it is controlled by the Communist Party — a stance critics including some US senators say is doubtful in China’s state-dominated system. The company notes it uses the same global components suppliers as Western manufacturers.
“Not a single shred of evidence against the company has ever been presented,” Huawei said in a written response to questions.
The company is the “most examined telecoms equipment vendor,” the statement said. It said foreign officials visit regularly to see “the lengths we go to assure them of the integrity of our technology.”
Huawei, headquartered on a leafy campus in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, has been working on 5G since 2009 and is one of the major suppliers of the technology, along with Sweden’s LM Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia.
The company whose technology is adopted stands to reap billions of dollars from sales and license fees.
5G promises more than just faster mobile phone service. It is designed to support vastly expanded networks of devices from Internetlinked cars and medical equipment to factory robots and nuclear power plants. Annual sales of 5G network gear are forecast to reach $11 billion by 2022, according to IHS Markit. That makes it more politically sensitive, raises the potential cost of security failures and requires more trust in suppliers.
Even a “really minuscule” risk could disqualify a provider, said Andrew Kitson, head of technology industry research for Fitch Solutions. But Kitson sees commercial motives behind the accusations against Huawei. He said many come from US and European suppliers that are losing market share to Chinese rivals.
Kitson said: “They’ve only got to make a few insinuations for other governments to sit up and think, hang on, even if there is no proof, it is too much of a risk.”
Huawei took a new hit on Dec. 1 when its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Vancouver on US charges of lying to banks about transactions with Iran.
Huawei is more politically important than ZTE, a Chinese rival that was nearly driven out of business after Washington blocked it from buying US technology over exports to Iran and North Korea. President Donald Trump restored access after