A US law prohibiting federal agencies from buying Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) equipment is not legislative punishment, but serves to protect against China gaining a strategic foothold in those agencies’ networks, the US government said on Wednesday.
US Department of Justice lawyers asked a federal judge in Sherman, Texas, to throw out a lawsuit Huawei filed in March against the US government.
The Chinese telecom giant sued to invalidate a law that the US Congress passed last year barring government purchases of its products.
“Congress’ concern that Huawei could be used by the Chinese government to target US telecommunications networks did not develop overnight,” the government filing said.
“Lawmakers and numerous executive branch officials have been raising concerns about Huawei’s potential to enable Chinese cyberactivity against US networks for over a decade and have been acting over that time to mitigate the threat,” it said.
The litigation in Texas involves Huawei’s ability to sell equipment in the US market.
It is separate from the US government’s blacklisting of Huawei, which prohibits the company from buying components from US suppliers.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that US companies would be allowed to sell their equipment to Huawei when there are no national security concerns, thereby easing the blacklist restrictions that the US Department of Commerce imposed in May.
In the Texas lawsuit, Huawei is challenging a section of the US National Defense Authorization Act that bars federal agencies from buying Huawei equipment. The law passed by Congress last year also prohibits federal contractors from using Huawei equipment, and blocks federal loan or grant recipients from using the funds to buy the company’s equipment or services.
Huawei says that Congress abused its powers by sanctioning the company without a hearing or trial.
The law violates constitutional prohibitions against the legislature singling out individuals for punishment, the company said in its request to have the section that targets its equipment declared unconstitutional.
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