Fabrications on Huawei ‘groundless’

CHINA urged countries yesterday to end “fabrications” about Huawei after an official in Poland said his country could limit the use of the company’s products by public entities following the arrest of a Huawei employee there on spying allegations.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, faces intense scrutiny in the West over its relationship with China’s government and US-led allegations that its devices could be used by Beijing for espionage.

No evidence has been produced publicly and Huawei has repeatedly denied the accusations, but several Western countries have restricted its access to their markets.

Poland arrested a Chinese Huawei employee and a former Polish security official on spying allegations on Friday.

A Polish government official responsible for cyber security, Karol Okonski, said that “abrupt” policy changes toward Huawei were not warranted after the arrests, but that the use of the company’s products by state entities could be reviewed.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China hoped Poland would work to create mutual trust and maintain relations.

Hua said “some people” seek to use groundless accusations about security threats to “suppress and restrict Chinese technology companies’ development abroad. We urge relevant parties to cease the groundless fabrications and unreasonable restrictions toward Huawei and other Chinese companies, and create a fair, good and just environment for mutual investment and normal co-operation by both sides’ companies”.

“Using security reasons to hype, obstruct or restrict normal co-operation between companies in the end will only hurt one’s own interests,” Hua added.

Huawei said it had sacked the employee arrested in Poland, Wang Weijing, adding that his “alleged actions have no relation to the company”.

In August, US President Donald Trump signed a bill that barred the US government from using Huawei equipment and was considering an executive order that would also ban US companies from doing so. | Reuters RUSSIA’S disagreements with Japan stand in the way of clinching a peace deal to end a decades-old territorial row, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday.

Both countries have been in dispute since World War II over islands captured by Soviet troops in the last days of the war. The islands are known as the Southern Kuriles to Russia and the Northern Territories to Japan.

“The political will of our leaders to fully normalise between Russia and Japan prompts us to activate this dialogue,” Lavrov said after talks with Japan’s Foreign Minister, Taro Kono. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making a push for a treaty with Russia over the islands. | Reuters