Huawei executive: Chinese tech giant wants to be ‘transparent’
A top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei said Friday that the company is prepared to be “open and transparent” as it looks to persuade the U.S. government that it can be trusted and that national security concerns about its technology are unfounded.
“The first thing we need it do is we need to demystify this company,” Paul Scanlan, chief technology officer of Huawei’s carrier network business unit, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“We are a Chinese company, we are based in China, the majority of the people are ethnically Chinese, so there’s nothing to say we’re not a Chinese company,” he said. But, he added, “That doesn’t mean we have ties to the Chinese government. It doesn’t mean we take money from the Chinese government in the form of investments. Those things are not true.”
Scanlan spoke as grievances between China and the U.S. remain unresolved despite the announcement of a temporary truce in the countries’ trade war. U.S. sanctions tied to national security concerns threaten to disrupt the company’s smartphone and network equipment business, with Washington pressuring allies to ban Huawei, the world’s biggest supplier of telecom gear, from new 5G networks.
Huawei, seeking to reduce reliance on U.S. and other foreign suppliers, has developed its own line of chips to power some of its phones. The company has also been removing U.S. components from its smartphones
and network gear and has created its own phone operating system to replace Google’s Android if necessary.
Though the company wants to participate in the “global supply chain” and would prefer to continue collaborating with Google, it is also prepared to continue developing its own products that could compete more directly with other companies.
“If push comes to shove and you’re put in a corner, we’re a commercial company — and therefore commercial companies will take commercial decisions,” Scanlan said, later adding, “It’s a welcome, perhaps, change to the world to have some alternative competition.”
He said Huawei is eager to “demystify” itself to skeptical U.S. authorities and is prepared to invite American officials to review its software themselves to address any concerns. The company has done the same for
the United Kingdom, where new software is inspected at a facility and reports are prepared for the government and telecommunications operators, he said.
“If this is what is required, give us examples of what you think would be the rule book, and we’ll play by the rule book,” he added, referring to the U.S. “But today the challenge is, what’s the rule book?”
He added: “You fear what you don’t know. The first thing Huawei needs to do and what we’re trying to do this year, very specifically, is be more open and more transparent — ask any question you’d like, every executive will answer it honestly and openly. If you’d like to come to our facilities to have a look at what we do and how Huawei does it, you’re more than welcome. Anybody.”
The Justice and Commerce departments did not immediately return emails seeking comment on Scanlan’s remarks.