Huawei makes nice as spying claims heat up
Chinese technology giant calls allegations ’baseless’
CHINESE technology giant Huawei is turning on the charm in South Africa as part of its international offensive to ease suspicions about its global expansion.
Huawei has managed to keep a remarkably low profile for a company whose products are used by more than a third of the world’s population.
Nonetheless, its executives have faced a barrage of questions about the company’s role in spying on clients on behalf of the Chinese government — a claim it vigorously denies.
This week Liu Wenjun, chief executive of Huawei South Africa, formally introduced himself to the media. He was appointed in June.
A trained engineer with experience of working in the Middle East, he told journalists he regarded South Africa and the rest of the continent as strategically important markets for Huawei.
Huawei entered the South African market in 1999, and since then has steadily grown the business to the point where today it employs more than 1 000 people in the country, 60% of whom are locals.
It has also made rapid progress in the rest of Africa.
This year it has signed numerous deals, including a $750-million (about R7.6billion) project in Nigeria for the upgrading of the local mobile network.
Two weeks ago, it scored a $1.6-billion deal, equally split with rival ZTE, the world’s fifth-largest telecom equipment maker, to build mobile infrastructure and introduce 4G broadband in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
It is already reaping dividends in South Africa: last week Business Report reported that IT distributor Mustek would increasingly source its products from devices manufactured by Huawei over the next three to five years.
Yet suspicion about the company’s activities remains — especially when it comes to using its powerful mobile technology to spy on customers.
We have no relationship with China’s government
“Our line is very simple: these allegations have been baseless,” said Roland Sladek, Huawei’s vice-president for international media affairs. “There simply hasn’t been any evidence of the company spying on our customers, be they on the continent or anywhere else in the world.”
Six weeks ago a former head of the US’s Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Hayden, reportedly told an Australian newspaper that Huawei had “shared with the Chinese state intimate and extensive knowledge of the foreign telecommunications systems it is involved with”.
Last year the US House of Representatives urged US companies to stop doing business with Huawei because of concerns about spying.
Sladek denied rumours that the company had an overly intimate relationship with the Chinese government.
Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese military officer, founder and CEO of the group, has kept a low profile.
The former member of the People’s Liberation Army — who was voted one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential businessmen in 2013 — has for 26 years declined to be interviewed by a journalist, increasing suspicions of a link with the Chinese government.
Sladek said: “On that accusation we’ve also been very clear: we have no relationship with the Chinese government other than us being a Chinese-based company and, as such, having to respect the laws of that country.”
Last week’s openness towards journalists is welcomed and is perhaps a sign of the group’s growing acceptance that, for any company, charming the media is a tool for dispelling myths.