Huawei ready to give assurances it won’t spy

Amid U.S. pressure on European countries to shun the firm over espionage concerns, Chinese telecom giant Huawei said it’s willing to sign no-spy agreements with governments, including Britain.

“We are willing to sign no-spy agreements with governments, including the UK government, to commit ourselves to making our equipment meet the no-spy, no-backdoors standard,” Huawei chairman Liang Hua told reporters in London.

Britain is deciding the extent to which it will allow Huawei, the world’s biggest supplier of telecoms equipment, to participate in building its 5G networks.

Washington has told allies not to use Huawei’s technology to build new 5G networks because of worries it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying, an accusation the company has denied.

While insisting that the company does not spy for the Chinese government, Liang, however, said economic factors should be part of the British decision, and politics should be taken out of it.

On the other hand the German government, however, said there was no sign that China was offering a “no-spy” agreement of the kind that would help Huawei in its bid for contracts to build Germany’s next-generation mobile networks.

Via Reuters