Huawei sues US government over product ban, accuses it of hacking its servers

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has sued the US government for banning the use of its products by government agencies. Huawei said that the US Congress could not produce sufficient evidence to support the restrictions. "The US Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort. This ban not only is unlawful but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming US consumers," Huawei Rotating chairman Guo Ping said.

In the lawsuit filed against the US government, the firm said that it has no Chinese government ownership as claimed by the Trump administration. The tech giant has also accused the US government of hacking its servers and stealing emails.

The offensive from the Huawei has come days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the company of having deep connections with Chinese intelligence agencies.

“One is that there’s a risk that they’ll steal American technology, and frankly, use those systems to invade your privacy. That is, they do telecommunications equipment that provide backbone services for networks, handsets all throughout the IT infrastructure and soon will be moving across the entire world with their new 5G rollout of their equipment,” Pompeo had said.

“Second, Huawei also presents a more traditional national security threat. It’s very different from in America. If you’re working with AT&T or a US telecom provider, a Microsoft or an IBM who’s providing IT services or products, it’s a private company doing its own thing, trying to make money, trying to grow its business,” he said.

The Shenzhen-based firm has been facing headwinds in its bid to enter the US market. Citing security concerns, three countries – the US, Australia and New Zealand have banned Huawei from supplying its equipment for their upcoming 5G mobile broadband networks.

“Huawei is owned by the state of China and has deep connections to their intelligence service. That should send off flares for everybody who understands what the Chinese military and Chinese intelligence services do. We have to take that threat seriously,” Pompeo had said.

The company, however, has denied all the allegations and maintained that it works independently and has no allegiance with the Chinese government and the country’s intelligence agencies.