The confrontation between Chinese technology company, Huawei, and the United States has nowhere reached its end, as Huawei, today, announced the company has filed a lawsuit against the US government.
Huawei’s legal action is viewed as a pushback against pressure from the U.S government, who recently accused the technology company of spying on behalf of the Chinese government. The company has continued to deny the claim.
The United States accused Huawei of intellectual property theft, claiming Huawei is spying with its technology. According to a statement by the U.S Vice President, Mike Pence, China’s law urges Huawei to release data collated by their technology.
“Chinese law requires them to provide Beijing’s vast security apparatus with access to any data that touches their networks or equipment,” Vice President Mike Pence said last month.
Huawei’s legal stand
Huawei denied Mike Pence’s allegation, stating that it would normally resist any pressure from the Chinese government if the company was ever asked to hand over data or spy on the government’s behalf.
The lawsuit against the United States was filed in Texas, challenging a recent US law which bans US federal agencies from buying the company’s products.
Huawei is asking a US federal court to overturn part of the National Defence Authorisation Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump in August. Huawei alleges that a portion of the law — which specifically forbids government agencies from using technology from Huawei and its smaller Chinese rival, ZTE (ZTCOF) — violates the US Constitution by singling out an individual or group for punishment without trial.
“The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort.”
Intellectual property theft allegation
While the United States hasn’t provided actual evidence, the North American country is lobbying other countries to ban Huawei technology or place sanctions on the company as well.
This led to the arrest of Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada due to a request from the U.S, who is now demanding for her extradition to the U.S. Huawei and Wanzhou were accused of assisting Iran to bypass a U.S. sanction.
Huawei Deputy Chairman, Guo Ping said Huawei is an employee-owned technology firm and not state-run, so it’s activities can’t be determined by the government.
“Huawei has not and will never implant ‘back doors. We will never allow others to install any in our equipment.” Ping said.
“This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers,” ping said
Meanwhile, as Huawei continue to deny being a cybersecurity threat, Ping accused the U.S of hacking into the company’s servers and stealing the company’s email. The claim was said to be as a result of leaked information on American intelligence and surveillance operations to the media by Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor.
Ping said the US government “has hacked our servers and stolen our emails and the source code.”
Amazing. I think that we are seeing a confrontation between two states and ideologies.