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HUAWEI would sign 'we promise not to spy' pacts with governments
According to Huawei chairman Liang Hua (via Reuters), the company is willing to sign “no-spy” agreements with governments, including the United Kingdom. The pacts would ensure HUAWEI is legally responsible to prevent backdoor spying on other nations using HUAWEI equipment.
“We are willing to sign no-spy agreements with governments, including the U.K. government, to commit ourselves to making our equipment meet the no-spy, no-backdoors standard,” Hua told reporters in London via an interpreter.
The statement is in response to pressures from the United States on European countries to avoid using HUAWEI telecommunications gear over fears of the company using that equipment to spy on other nations and report findings to the Chinese government.
HUAWEI is criticized relentlessly for allegedly participating in espionage activities under direction from the Chinese government, an accusation that is repeatedly denied by both HUAWEI and China and has never been fully proven.
The United Kingdom is currently deciding how much HUAWEI equipment it will use for the deployment of its 5G networks.
“The security and resilience of the [United Kingdom’s] telecoms networks is of paramount importance, and we have strict controls for how HUAWEI equipment is currently deployed in the U.K.,” a British government spokesman said on Tuesday.
The U.K. will decide soon about HUAWEI’s involvement in its telco infrastructure and these promises from the company are likely an attempt to assure the government there is nothing to fear.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., President Donald Trump is soon expected to sign an order which would effectively ban all U.S. telecoms from using HUAWEI equipment.