Huawei is currently holding a news conference in Shenzhen, China, announcing its lawsuit against the US government.
This lawsuit is over the US government’s ban of Huawei’s telecommunications equipment being sold and used in the country. During the news conference, the company stated that it has no choice, other than to sue the government. After the actions of the US Congress have hurt both the US and China. An executive from Huawei said during the news conference that it “has not, and will never implant any backdoors… and will not allow anyone else to do so.”
The executives at this press conference are reading off of foldable Mate X smartphones that were shown off at Mobile World Congress last month.
In a bold move, Huawei is also accusing the US government of hacking its own servers and stealing emails. It is also claiming that the US government is smearing the company, without having any evidence. And finally, blocking its ability to compete in the 5G space around the world. The US is not only blocking Huawei’s equipment in the US, but also telling their allies to block Huawei’s equipment from networks in their countries. And with 5G right around the corner, it has a bigger meaning than it would have, about five years ago.
Huawei is focusing on the National Defense Authorization Act, that was signed into law last August. This law called Huawei by name, to block federal agencies from working with Huawei and using its products. However, Huawei is stating that it is willing to work with the US government to resolve any concerns that it might have.
For many, many years, Huawei has had a stigma that it was used by the Chinese government to spy on its customers. During the Obama administration, many investigations were opened into Huawei, including a lengthy, multi-year investigation. All of which turned up zero evidence of Huawei spying on its users. Under the Trump administration, Huawei has been hit with the ban hammer a few times. Forcing AT&T and Verizon not to carry Huawei’s Mate 10 Pro last year, and then banning its equipment altogether in the US.
The US government is also using Huawei as a pawn to approve the Sprint/T-Mobile merger. Forcing the parent companies, SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom respectively, not to use Huawei in their home countries of Japan and Germany. As if that wasn’t enough, the US is persuading its allies to not use Huawei’s networking gear on their networks as well. Essentially forcing Huawei out of the 5G game. For those unaware, Huawei makes the majority of their money through networking gear, smartphones and mobile products are a small percentage of its revenue.
This is not the only thing going on with Huawei recently. Its CFO was arrested in Canada last year, and is now facing extradition to the US. This is over her alleged violation of US sanctions with Iran and North Korea. Not to mention the fact that, a couple Huawei officials were arrested in Poland recently, on espionage charges.
To say the least, there’s a lot of bad press going on for Huawei right now, and it isn’t going to let up anytime soon.