Which is the bigger security risk? Huawei suggests it is the US CLOUD Act, not Chinese telecoms equipment

Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, has once again defended its reputation on security. But this time, it took the fight against spy accusations from the US a step further by directly criticising a new American law that gives the US government access to data across borders.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, Huawei chairman Guo Ping said the US government has no evidence to support accusations that the company’s products can be used to spy for China, while reiterating that the firm “has not and will never plant back doors” to compromise the security of its products.

Later in his speech, he took a more direct aim at the US, reminding the audience at the telecom industry’s biggest show about America’s own issues with cybersecurity and surveillance.

“Prism, Prism on the wall, who is the most trustworthy of them all?” he said, a reference to revelations made by National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013. Snowden, who remains a fugitive from the US government, had revealed systematic spying done by the US on its citizens and people overseas, under a project code-named Prism.

Guo also went a step further to criticise the US CLOUD Act, far-reaching legislation signed into law by President Donald Trump in March 2018 that authorises the US government to request consumer data from cloud service providers such as Amazon and Microsoft even when the data is not stored on US soil.