The former head of the CIA said he is aware of hard evidence that Huawei Technologies Co has spied for the Chinese government, the Australian Financial Review reported yesterday.
Michael Hayden, also the former head of the US National Security Agency, said in an interview with the paper that Huawei had “shared with the Chinese state intimate and extensive knowledge of the foreign telecommunications systems it is involved with.”
Hayden said intelligence agencies have hard evidence of spying activity by the world’s No. 2 telecom equipment maker. It did not detail that evidence.
Huawei, set up in 1987 by former People’s Liberation Army officer Ren Zhengfei (任正非), has repeatedly denied being linked to the Chinese government or military or receiving financial support from either.
Hayden is a director of Motorola Solutions, which provides radios, smart tags, barcode scanners and safety products. Huawei and Motorola Solutions had previously been engaged in intellectual property disputes for a number of years.
Huawei Global cybersecurity officer John Suffolk described the comments made by Hayden as “tired, unsubstantiated defamatory remarks” and challenged him and other critics to present any evidence publicly.
“Huawei meets the communication needs of more than a third of the planet and our customers have the right to know what these unsubstantiated concerns are,” Suffolk said. “It’s time to put up or shut up.”
The report came a day after Britain announced it would review security at a cybercenter in southern England run by Huawei to ensure that the British telecommunications network is protected.
In October last year, the US House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee urged US firms to stop doing business with Huawei and ZTE Corp, warning that China could use equipment made by the companies to spy on communications and threaten systems.
The Australian government has barred Huawei from involvement in the building of its A$37.4 billion (US$34.3 billion) National Broadband Network.
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