Chinas envoy to the European Union hit back at what he called politically motivated U.S. warnings that Chinese telecom equipment makers should be kept out of European 5G networks.
In response to an op-ed in POLITICO by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the head of the Chinese Mission to the EU said that claims about Huawei were “a far cry from the truth.”
“Despite the witch hunt and media hype, not a single country or individual has come up with solid evidence to prove that Huawei poses a security threat,” Zhang Ming wrote in a letter to the editor published Wednesday.
“While Pompeo attacks the Chinese Communist Party and proudly claims the moral high ground, he forgets about the NSAs notorious PRISM surveillance program and the wiretapping of Americas closest allies,” the Chinese diplomat added.
“Pompeos efforts undermine the concept of national security. He is taking advantage of growing public consciousness of technology security to promote his own political agenda,” said Zhang.
Zhang was responding to the opinion article published Monday in which Pompeo wrote that “its critical that European countries not give control of their critical infrastructure to Chinese tech giants like Huawei, or ZTE.”
The U.S. has led a year-long diplomatic campaign to convince allies not to procure equipment from Huawei and ZTE, two vendors that compete with European firms Ericsson and Nokia on contracts for base stations, antennas and other equipment for next-generation internet networks.
The Chinese missions intervention in the debate coincided with a similar push from Huawei in which the firm pushed back against U.S. warnings that it poses a strategic and cybersecurity threat.
In a statement on Monday, Huawei said it “categorically rejects the defamatory and false allegations spread by the government of the United States. These are malicious and well-worn accusations. All they do is to undermine the reputation of the United States. Furthermore, they are an insult to Europes sovereignty and to the technical expertise of telecom operators.”
The back-and-forth is the latest tussle between the Chinese telecom company and the U.S. Read More – Source
