Huawei challenges competitors to subject themselves to same regulatory scrutiny, allow source code testing

Telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies, which says it has boosted investment in product security amid questions raised by some Western nations about its ownership and possible connections to the Chinese state, has called on global peers to follow suit by stepping up their transparency on national security issues.

Huawei is the only major telecoms equipment vendor that not only ensures the safety and credibility of its products, but also allows a British watchdog to review and test source codes to ensure safety, Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating chairman, said during the company’s annual results conference in Shenzhen yesterday.

“We’ve raised the bar in the industry to ensure not only the products tested during delivery are safe, but our entire development processes are also credible,” he said. “That’s why we opened our source codes for testing ... I believe that through this practice we are setting an example for the whole industry, hoping other vendors will keep up with us and do not lag behind.”

Guo’s remarks came after the fifth annual report from the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) Oversight Board, a body set up to monitor products supplied by the Shenzhen-based firm to British carriers. It said that “further significant technical issues have been identified in Huawei’s engineering processes”, which could lead to new risks in the country’s telecoms networks.

The oversight board provides only limited assurances that long-term security risks can be managed in Huawei’s equipment in Britain, the report said.  

But Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, which leads the HCSEC oversight board, said it does not believe that the defects identified are a result of Chinese state interference.