Huawei says relationship with suppliers will remain ‘unchanged’ despite detention of chief financial officer and US pressure on 5G

Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecom equipment vendor, has told its network of global suppliers that US accusations in the wake of the detention of its chief financial offer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou will not harm their business partnerships.

Huawei told suppliers in a letter that it has been the target of numerous accusations by the US government recently and its corporate CFO was detained by Canadian Authorities on December 1 at the request of the US, adding that it has clarified multiple times that the company strictly complies with all applicable laws and regulations in doing global business.

“We believe it is unreasonable of the US government to use these sorts of approaches to exert pressure on a business entity. They are against the spirit of free economy and fair competition,” Huawei said on Thursday in “A letter to our global supply chain partners”, a copy of which was provided to the South China Morning Post.

“Nevertheless, regardless of how unreasonable their approach becomes, the partnerships we have with our global suppliers will stay unchanged,” it said. Huawei declined to comment further on the letter.

China’s push to lead the global development and roll-out of 5G mobile networks could be at risk following the arrest of Huawei’s CFO as its 5G network deployments may be hampered if it incurs US sanctions that block access to American technology suppliers or limit the number of markets where the company can sell its products.

Huawei, which operates four major business segments including telecoms carriers, enterprises, terminal and cloud products, has a supplier network spanning the globe, but most are in the US, Japan, Taiwan, and mainland China.

US chip maker Intel and NXP Semiconductors of The Netherlands have both been recognised as a Huawei “Golden Supplier” for 10 consecutive years.

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The Shenzhen-based company has built up a strong ecosystem in information, communications and technology (ICT) after working with more than 13,000 companies for the past 30 years.

“The growth of Huawei is closely tied with the growth and prosperity of our supply partners. We will continue to work with all of you to build more trust, and to facilitate the sustainable and healthy development of the global ICT industry,” Huawei said in the letter, while thanking them for their ongoing support.

Huawei has been leading in development of the next-generation mobile network with a total of 22 agreements to build 5G systems signed so far, with the latest memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on Wednesday for 5G services in Portugal.

Australia has followed the US in banning Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G roll-out, while Spark, New Zealand’s biggest telecoms network operator, said last week that the country’s intelligence agency blocked its proposal to use the Chinese firm’s equipment for its 5G development plans.

Japan is also set to ban government purchases of telecoms products from Huawei and fellow Chinese supplier ZTE Corp over fears of intelligence leaks and cyberattacks, according to a Reuters report on Friday, citing the Yomiuri newspaper.