China’s EU envoy hits out at ‘slander’ against Huawei
- Zhang Ming tells Financial Times that the controversial telecoms giant is being smeared amid growing criticism of its international operations
China’s envoy to the EU on Monday said Huawei was the victim of slander as Western governments try to hamper the Chinese telecommunications giant’s effort to deploy its technology worldwide.
“It is not helpful to make slander, discrimination, pressure, coercion or speculation against anyone else,” Ambassador Zhang Ming told the Financial Times.
“Now someone is sparing no effort to fabricate a security story about Huawei,” he said.
Beijing’s criticism follows similar words by Foreign Minister Wang Yi who said the campaign against Huawei was “unfair and immoral”.
The United States, France and other western nations have voiced fears that using Huawei base stations and other gear could give Beijing access to critical network infrastructure worldwide, possibly allowing it to spy on foreign governments.
In an interview with Bloomberg, European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip said the EU was especially worried given China’s National Intelligence Law, passed in 2017.