Huawei President Proposes Non-Spying Agreement with US: NPR

A senior Huawei official said on Tuesday that the company is ready to sign a "non-espionage deal" with the US to reassure US officials that the company's technology could be used for surveillance purposes.

This offer is similar to the Chinese tech giant's proposals in the UK and Germany, and comes after weeks of intense pressure from the Trump administration.

"We are ready to sign a non-espionage agreement with the United States," Huawei President Liang Hua told reporters during a meeting with a group of US journalists visiting the company's headquarters. Shenzhen, China, with the China-United States Exchange Foundation.

Although it is the first public offer of an agreement in the United States, Mr. Liang stressed that conditions might not exist for such an agreement.

"The United States has not bought from us, does not buy from us and does not intend to buy from us," he said. "So, I do not know if it's possible to sign such an agreement."

Liang accused the United States of inappropriate conduct, while adopting a conciliatory tone – a response reflecting the level of exasperation currently felt by the Chinese tech giant.

"It is inappropriate to use political means to disrupt an industry," he said.

Huawei is one of the most successful technology companies in China and has a global footprint. It is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world, behind Samsung but before Apple in early 2019. It is also one of the leading telecommunications providers for wireless 5G wireless networks, the infrastructure needed for driverless cars, smart cities with intelligent traffic lights and smart factories.

But society is facing a growing reaction from Western countries because of concerns about the safety of its products. US leaders say Huawei's networks and phones could be used by the Chinese government and leave users vulnerable to privacy breaches

This culminated last month when the US Department of Commerce added Huawei to its "List of Entities", which banned US companies from selling technology to Huawei without government approval. The Trump administration has delayed the ban from taking full effect until later this summer.

The United States is also putting pressure on other countries to prohibit Huawei from security reasons. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Monday Switzerland and the Netherlands against the use of Chinese technology. And President Trump was to discuss Huawei during his visit with Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday.

In the meantime, Huawei used a series of media interviews to share the company's view that it would be unfairly used as a pawn in China's high-stakes trade talks. and the United States. Huawei is also fighting aggressively against the United States. Last week, the company filed a lawsuit in a US court to declare the Trump administration 's efforts to ban its equipment unconstitutional.

Huawei has become the most visible target of the US government in the trade dispute with China. Last year, tensions peaked after the United States issued an arrest warrant against Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer, for violating US sanctions against Iran, between other allegations. Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, is under house arrest in Canada and is fighting for his extradition to the United States.

The ban on US technology companies doing business with Huawei is expected to drastically reduce demand for Huawei phones in the future. Most Huawei phones work on Google's Android operating systems.

Huawei has a backup plan to go ahead with its own version of computer chips and operating systems in order to reduce its reliance on US tech companies, said Professor David Daokui Li of the # Tsinghua University.

Liang Huawei also said that in the long run, the company would develop its own operating system similar to Android. But this will take time.

There is no doubt that the ban on the US government, if imposed, will hurt Huawei in the short term, some experts in China claim that it could strengthen the company's long position term.

"What President Trump is doing is waking up Huawei's sleeping capacity," Li said.