Consumers check out Huawei gadgets at a store in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province on Friday. Photo: VCG

China's Foreign Ministry on Monday slammed US officials' smear campaign against Chinese telecom company Huawei Technologies in some Gulf countries, detailing the US' well-documented track record of spying on other countries with the help of its companies and calling on all countries to treat Chinese companies fairly.

Asked at a press briefing on Monday about recent attempts by some US officials to steer some Gulf countries away from using Huawei equipment in their 5G networks, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the ministry, called the move not only dishonorable but also immoral.

"For quite some time now, the US has not only used its own state power to crack down on certain Chinese companies but also tried to fan the flames and launch smears and attacks all around the world," Hua said. "Such conduct violates the basic market spirit and international rules and is very dishonorable and, more so, immoral." 

During a visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Ajit Pai, chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, and Robert Strayer, the US State Department's deputy assistant secretary for cyber, international communications and information policy, raised "security concerns" over using Huawei technologies for 5G infrastructure in those countries, Reuters reported on Thursday.

At the press conference on Monday, Hua slammed the US for manufacturing and spreading claims of security threats of Huawei's 5G services without producing "any shred of evidence" to back it up. 

She further noted that reviews by the UK, Germany and the EU found no backdoors in Huawei equipment. Instead, they found security loopholes with US telecom company Cisco. 

US companies Apple and Facebook have also admitted to the existence of "backdoors" on their devices and services.

Hua said that the revelation of Washington's PRISM surveillance program also showed that US citizens had no personal privacy in front of US intelligences agencies and 35 countries, including its EU allies, had been spied on for as long as 10 years.

"Conducting these spying and monitoring activities are US companies such as Cisco and Apple. These are all open facts," she said. "If a country wants to safeguard cybersecurity, it should not guard against Huawei but against the US-based Cisco and Apple."


Newspaper headline: FM slams US officials’ smearing of Huawei in Gulf countries