Czech President Milos Zeman says West’s allegations of espionage against Huawei are not supported by evidence
- Beijing hopes Czech Republic will win fair hearing for Chinese businesses in Europe
- Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei lauds Zeman’s trust and appreciation
Czech President Milos Zeman said the West’s allegations of espionage against Chinese telecoms company Huawei are not supported by evidence.
Zeman made the remarks during his trip to Beijing for last week’s Belt and Road Forum, when he met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Huawei executives.
Xi said China was willing to work with the Czech Republic to take their partnership to a “new level” and he hoped Prague would play a constructive role in promoting relations between China and the rest of Europe.
Czech presidential office spokesman Jiri Ovcacek was quoted by local media as saying that Zeman maintained that “the campaign against Huawei was not based on evidence”.
Huawei’s technology was not being used for espionage, the spokesman said after a meeting between Zeman and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei on Saturday.
Xi said China appreciated that Zeman had spoken up for Beijing and called for fair treatment for the Chinese telecoms company whose chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada in December at the request of the US government.
Meng and Huawei face about two dozen charges brought by the United States, including financial fraud and violation of trade sanctions against Iran. They denied the charges.
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Huawei is under pressure from Western nations. In December, the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency warned against using Huawei and telecom equipment supplier ZTE, saying they posed a national security threat.
The Czech president was reported to have opposed the position of his security chiefs.
Also in December, Zhang Jianmin, Chinese ambassador to the Czech Republic, said in a meeting with Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš that the decision to stop using Huawei products was “influenced by misguided warnings” and “hasty”.
Zhang told Babiš that the warning had a “very bad impact”, and asked the Czech government to protect the legitimate interests of Chinese companies. Babiš denied that the ban was a “mistake”.
In a statement, Huawei said Ren had expressed his gratitude for Zeman’s trust and appreciation.
“The Czech Republic has huge potential to further industrial digitisation and AI application. Huawei is eager to make even greater contributions toward easing the country’s digital economy agenda,” the statement said.
The United States has called on its allies to ban Huawei. In February, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned allies against using Huawei equipment on their soil, saying it would make it more difficult for Washington to “partner alongside them” in security projects.
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Robert Strayer, a deputy assistant secretary at the US State Department, said on Monday that Huawei “was not a trusted vendor” and any use of its technology in 5G networks was a risk.
But Britain’s National Security Council last week approved in principle allowing Huawei to supply “noncore” 5G technology, despite objections from five cabinet ministers and months of US lobbying.
